Jeffrey Richard Jacob

June 29, 1943 - September 18, 2018

06/29/1943 - 09/18/2018

Jeff was born in Hunterdon County, NJ, to C. Richard and Dorothy Dangler Jacob, and had one sister, Barbara “Barra” Jacob-McDowell. Everyone in the family loved history; family vacations were spent camping in the US and Canada, traveling to forts, battlefields, and museumsAfter graduation from Hackettstown (NJ) High School in 1961, he enlisted in the Air Force but during Basic Training received an honorable medical discharge due to an accident. He was employed by several businesses, including as Acting Manager of the Small Appliance Department for K-Mart, but his passion was military history. For over 40 years, he was a collector and later broker of medals of honor and orders of merit. Entirely self-educated, he wrote many articles in American, European and British journals, also collaborating on several scholarly books. He was the author of Court Jewelers of the World (Cherry Hill: 1978), the product of 15 years of meticulous research, that’s still a landmark publication in the field. “My big brother was brilliant and witty,” Barra recalls. “I once asked him who won the battle of Gettysburg. Almost three hours later, he let me out of his room, after re-enacting the entire battle for me. I can tell you: TheUnion won.” Jeff was his mother’s devoted caregiver for the last three years of her life. In 2007, he moved to Wheeling, WV. Since then, he established and maintained two small libraries in his senior complex, one in each of its two buildingsServiceswill be private, followed by cremation and interment in NJ. Hes survived by his sister Barra Jacob-McDowell (John McDowell) of Pittsburgh, several cousins, and friends locally and world-wide. In lieu of flowers, please make donations to the Helen Keller Foundation, Alzheimer’s Foundation of America, or your local library.

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Fred Larimore
5 years ago

I Knew Jeff for many years. We shared a passion for history and the collecting of British decorations and campaign medals but especially for the stories of the men behind the medals. For both Jeff and I history was note about captains and kings but was about the everyday men and women who did the history on a daily basis throughout their lives. Jeff’s truly magnificent mind had a wonderful ability to make these stories come alive in the most detailed, unique and interesting ways. Jeff will be greatly missed by me.

David Fanning
5 years ago

We were very sorry to hear of Jeff’s passing. He was a longtime customer of our bookstore, and I’ll miss his phone calls. He was certainly very knowledgeable and had a good sense of humor to go with his intellect. He’ll be missed.

David Edkins
5 years ago

Sorry and surprised to hear of Jeff’s death. As a fellow collector and military researcher I stay in close contact with him for many years, He helped me with my research with his fabulous library and sold me some magnificent medals. He will be missed.