October 6, 2006 Source: :
http://www.wlu.ca/news_update.php?grp_id=28&nws_id=2567&filter_type=update Marilyn Jacobs passes away
- funeral service to be held
Monday Marilyn
Jacobs, a well-known, respected and admired presence on the Laurier campus
for more than 20 years, passed away Friday morning following a lengthy
illness. She was 54. Jacobs began her involvement with Laurier as a student, eventually becoming
a part-time faculty member, admissions and continuing education co-ordinator
in the Faculty of Social Work, harassment and discrimination co-ordinator,
and university secretary, the position she held until a diagnosis of cancer
forced her to to take a medical leave of absence beginning in April 2005. She will be remembered, said Luke Fusco, the former dean of Social Work, for
her "sense of justice and ethics, honesty and propriety. "She was very wise, just and confident," he said. "We loved her. She was a
great friend, and she had a great sense of humour. She was fun, and there
was always wisdom." As university secretary, a position she assumed in 1999, Jacobs was
responsible for co-ordinating and facilitating the activities of the board
of governors, various committees and convocation. "I very much appreciated her support as university secretary," said
president Dr. Bob Rosehart. "She grew and excelled in the role, and she
played a key role in the governance reform for the board of governors a
couple of years ago." Rosehart remembers Jacobs as having "tremendous integrity," and in her role
as harassment and discrimination co-ordinator she "displayed great poise and
respect" in situations that required great empathy and tact. The university "has lost a really good friend, a really committed person,"
he said. Jacobs, who received The Schaus Award in 2006 for her outstanding
contributions to the Laurier community, fought her cancer with tremendous
bravery and spirit. Although ill, she was a frequent visitor on campus, and
fought her increasing boredom, until she got too sick, by reading Social
Work admission applications at home. "We were happy to do that," said Fusco. "We valued a ‘Marilyn reading’." Jacobs received a Bachelor of Applied Science degree from the University of
Guelph in 1975 and a Master of Social Work degree from Laurier in 1978. She
worked as a social worker in Cambridge, director of an outpatient
psychiatric clinic, and for five years was supervisor for inpatient
psychiatric social work at Riverside Methodist Hospital in Columbus, Ohio. She was a part-time faculty member in Social Work from 1987 to 1992 and was
faculty advisor for first- and second-year graduate students from 1991 to
1999. In recent years, Jacobs was a member of the Holocaust and Hope Advisory
Committee of the League of Human Rights, B’nai B’rith Canada, and was on the
board of directors (including president of the board) of Family and
Children’s Services of Waterloo Region. She is survived by her husband, Rob, a professor of pathobiology at the
University of Guelph, and two children – Sarah, a second-year student at the
University of Western Ontario, and Daniel, a fourth-year student at McGill
University. Service will be held at the Beth Isaiah Synagogue, Surrey & Dublin Streets,
Guelph on Monday, October 9 at 1:00 p.m. Interment Woodlawn Memorial Park.
Shiva will be observed at the family home, 73 Woodland Glen Drive, Guelph
from Sunday, October 15 to Friday, October 20. For more information, see the
Guelph Mercury.
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