In post number 106 dated March 15, 2013, I profiled John
“Jake” Jacobson as a “lost” early “major shaper” of Davis whose memory was
seemingly eclipsed by World War II.
Having now started to focus on him, material previously
ignored is being perceived. Thus, UCD University Archivist John Skarstad
recently noticed that the 1921 edition of the UCD yearbook was dedicated to
Jacobson.
That fact has been there all this time. We are now more prepared to “see” it.
The dedication even features a photo, which we did not have
before.
Notice, also, that his last name is spelled “Jacobsen,” whereas “Jacobson” was the spelling in later years.
This reminds me of Ben Madsen versus Ben Madson. The story goes that people misspelled it so persistently and commonly that Ben gave up correcting them and went from Madsen to Madson. One wonders if “Jake” did not have the same problem and do the same thing. (What do these two little changes say about the dominant linguistic tendencies of Davisites?)
Many thanks to John Skarstad for his alertness!
