Jacobs, Ira

Ira Jacobs 79, of Blacksburg, Virginia, passed away August 11, 2010, after a courageous battle with cancer. He was born in Brooklyn on January 3, 1931, a son of the late Leah and Nathan Jacobs. He received a B.S. degree Magna Cum Laude from City College of New York (CCNY) in August 1950 where he majored in physics and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. Following graduation from CCNY, Ira undertook graduate work in physics at Purdue University where he obtained M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in June of 1952 and 1955, respectively. Dr. Jacobs joined Bell Laboratories as a member of technical staff in 1955, was promoted to supervisor in 1960, department head in 1962, and director in 1969. He was at the Whippany, N.J. location from 1955-1967, and at the Holmdel, N.J. location from 1967-1987. He retired from Bell Laboratories in 1987 to become a professor of electrical engineering at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Virginia Tech) in Blacksburg, Va. At Bell Labs, Dr. Jacobs worked first in the fields of electromagnetic and communication theory, and then in telephone transmission systems engineering and development, and he directed the development of much of AT&T’s early fiber optic transmission systems. He was elected a fellow of The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) in 1981, and was named a Life Fellow in 1995. He was an invited lecturer at the 1994 NATO Summer School on “Fibre Optic Metrology and Standards” in Viana do Castello, Portugal, and presented short courses on lightwave communications basics at the IEEE/OSA Optical Fiber Communications Conference annually from 1993-2003. At Virginia Tech, he taught and developed courses in fiber optics and telecommunications, and directed research on fiber optic communications technology and applications. Dr. Jacobs served as interim head of the Bradley Department of Electrical Engineering at Virginia Tech in 1994-95, served as senior advisor to the editor of IEEE Transactions on Communications, was an associate editor of IEEE Photonics Technology Letters, was vice-chair of IEEE Southeastcon ’97, and chaired the Scientific & Industrial Advisory Committee of the Telecommunications Research Institute of Ontario (TRIO) in 1993. He was on the executive committee of the IEEE Virginia Mountain Section for many years and received the section’s Outstanding Service Award in 1998 and 2003, and an IEEE Centennial Medal in 2000. He was appointed to the FCC Technological Advisory Council in March 2003. Dr. Jacobs has published more than 50 journal papers and has given many talks at professional conferences. Ira was on disability leave from Virginia Tech since 2007 which gave him time to pursue an early fantasy of becoming a writer. In 2009 he published a collection of children’s stories, The Life and Times of Otto K ottO, Pocahontas Press, Blacksburg, Va., and self-published his memoirs, Most Peoples Not So Lucky. These memoirs deal with his experiences and impressions on four topics that shaped and influenced his life: telecommunications, education, Judaism, and cancer. He was a member of the Blacksburg Jewish Community Center since 1987. Ira Jacobs is survived by his wife of 54 years, Irene (nee Schuman), and their son Phillip Jacobs of Spring Valley, N.Y.; their daughters, Mona Markell, of Tallahassee, Fla. and Nancy Jacobs, of Atlanta, Ga.; granddaughters Gitty, Leah, and Sorah Jacobs, Rebecca, Jenny, and Rachel Markell and Isabelle Jacobs; his brothers, Herbert Jacobs, of East Northport, N.Y. and Robert Jacobs of Albuquerque, N.M. Funeral services will be held at the Bloomfield-Cooper Funeral Home, 2130 Highway 35, Ocean, N.J. on Friday at 1 p.m. A memorial service will be held at the Blacksburg Jewish Community Center in Blacksburg, Va. on September 5, 2010, at 7:30 p.m. The family requests that donations in lieu of flowers be sent to the Valley Interfaith Child Care Center, P.O. Box 926, Blacksburg, Va. or to the American Friends of Magen David Adom, 352 Seventh Ave., Suite 400, New York, N.Y. 10001. Local arrangements by McCoy Funeral Home, Blacksburg.