John Jackobs was born on March 25th in Hibbing, MN and grew up in Superior, WI.  He attended Superior State University and graduated from there in 1961.  That same year he had open heart surgery at the Variety Heart Hospital in Minneapolis, MN.  This was performed by C. Walton Lillehei, MD, a pioneer in heart surgery in the world.  John went on to graduate school at Iowa State University and received a MS in Chemistry in 1964.   He continued on to Arizona State University.  Then in 1965, he married Miriam Kaled on August 28, 1965, in Sioux City, Iowa.    He received his PhD in Chemistry specializing in crystallography in 1967. 

His first son, Mark James, was born in Arizona.  Then John continued on to do Post-doctoral studies at Case Western Reserve University for two years with 5 papers published as a result of this work and then he was hired at Heidelberg College as an Associate Professor.  His second son, Daniel Michael, was born in Cleveland.

John taught at Heidelberg College and at that time his third son, Thomas Vincent, was born.  An opportunity arose to become Director of the Computer Center and Registrar as well as Professor at Coe College in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.  He held that position for 12 years. After that, John joined Jenzabar, a software company in Cincinnati that specialized in computer program packages for colleges and universities.  John’s Position was to teach the purchasers how to use the programs.  He retired in 2004.

John’s activities include being a Scoutmaster as he enjoyed sharing camping skills with the scouts. He was highly honored for his dedication with the District award of merit for work with the Scouts and then also with the Explorers.  He also was the recipient of the Council Silver Beaver Award.  His troop made 3 trips to Philmont: the National Scout Ranch in New Mexico and during his time as Scoutmaster, he guided 14 Scouts towards their eagle badge.  He was also the Scoutmaster for the Hawkeye Area Council Scouts to the National Scout Jamboree to Fort AP Hill in 1985.

In Iowa, he was also active with an officer in the Eastern Iowa Science fair.  He also loves photography from developing film to printing pictures as well as taking creative pictures. Woodworking has been a lifelong hobby but one he could not pursue fully until retirement at which time he also took up wood turning.  He now spends time building homes with Habitat for Humanity – 73 homes and counting at the end of 2022.  He likes to turn beautiful wood pieces with the Ohio Valley Woodturners Guild.  In addition to the actual turning, he also does the pyrography or wood burning of the pieces.  He also likes biking and has taken many long distance bike trips with Rails to Rails as well as with other like groups. 

At Church, he has been active in CRHP, M4 and Pastoral council.  That led to work on the Youth Ministries Advisory Board that also resulted in two mission trips to Honduras and Mexico.  He now also ushers at mass.  He is active with the Friends of Nyamitanga, the church’s twinning with a parish in Uganda.  He enjoys travel far and wide with his wife of 57.3 years and has done a half marathon on the continent of Antarctica.  Aside of all of this is his great enjoyment of his grandchildren, even though they reside in California and Minnesota. His sons now live with their spouses:  Mark and Alicja in Cleveland, Ohio; Dan and Debbie with children Aaron (who now lives in Minnesota) and Anna (in California) and Tom who is single and lives in Taipei, Taiwan.  John had a habit of writing to the boys every Sunday evening and sharing the weeks activities that he and Miriam had done.  Just to keep in touch!!