Community remembers business, civic leader John W. Jacobs, Jr.

GAINESVILLE - Community leaders in Gainesville are remembering local media giant and community leader John W. Jacobs, Jr., who died shortly before noon
Wednesday following a stroke on Saturday.

Jacobs was the founder and board chairman of Jacobs Media Corp., parent company of WDUN-AM, WDUN-FM, 1240 ESPN Radio, AccessNorthGa.com and Wide Travel. He and a number of other World War II veterans founded the company as Northeast Georgia Broadcasting Company in 1949.

Brenau University President Dr. Ed Schrader was among those remembering Jacobs after learning of his death Wednesday.

"He joined the Brenau Board of Trustees in 1958 and, as its longest-serving member, he has been continuously active since that time, including an unprecedented 25 years as chairman," Schrader said. "It would pay disservice to his colleagues to say that he was solely responsible for Brenau's survival, but it was his visionary leadership in the 1970s and the 1980s that illuminated Brenau's pathway to the diversification, which today provides the 133-year-old institution with its financial stability and solvency."

Schrader said Jacobs was board chairman when he came to Brenau. He said Jacobs had the best interest of the university at heart.

"He was not, however, the kind of leader who guided from afar. John was a man of action" Schrader said. "His trademark was 'big ideas.'"

Dr. John Burd is a past president of Brenau University. He remembers that Jacobs chaired the search committee that brought him to Brenau 26 years ago.

"The first two years he was not chairman of the board but the other 18 years that I worked at Brenau he was chairman of the board, and he was a gem to work with."

Burd said that Jacobs was a believer in education and supported not only Brenau, but also Gainesville State College and Lakeview Academy.

He also noted that the Northeast Georgia History Center would not exist in its present form without the backing and creativity of Jacobs.

"The Freedom Garden (at the history center) is uniquely John's idea, and he did the fundraising for it as well as help work with the design of it, and it is a major thing for our city to have."

The man who runs the North Georgia Community Foundation remembers Jacobs as someone he has known all his life, and he recalls working for Jacobs on two occasions as he was growing up.

Jim Mathis, Jr., says the first was a "seasonal" job, "recording church music, Christmas music programs, for rebroadcast."

The second was something totally different, Mathis said, but still connected to electronic media as Jacobs pioneered a new television concept in the community.

"(I) was selling cable TV when there was no such thing as cable TV in Gainesville, Georgia." Mathis added that Jacobs had the vision to bring cable television to the community when the concept was still in its infancy.

He also notes that Jacobs and wife Martha were in on the ground floor in the creation of the foundation.

Jacobs' contributions to the community didn't end there.

"John Jacobs was, to me, Mr. Chamber of Commerce," said Kit Dunlap, the executive director of the Greater Hall Chamber of Commerce. "He was always about business and attracting business to Hall County and promoting the community in every way."

Dunlap said Jacobs' passion for the community and the chamber was a family tradition of sorts.

"His history, of course, is that his father was chairman of the board and then John was chairman, president two different times and he also was executive director like I am," she said.

That rich legacy continues today with his son, John W. Jacobs, III (Jay), at the helm of the organization.

"I think the best thing to him was to see Jay sworn in as chairman of the board last year," Dunlap said. "And, of course, that's three generations of Jacobs being chairman or president of the chamber."

Among his many titles--chairman, businessman, father, husband and leader---John W. Jacobs, Jr. was also a mentor.

"I remember back as a member of the Gainesville High School Key Club, John invited several of our members to join in a service project with his beloved Gainesville Kiwanis Club," said Mike Banks, director of development at the Mike Cottrell School of Business at North Georgia College and State University. "It just so happened to also involve a promotion at his radio station in helping to find Christmas gifts for the less fortunate in our community, and as I look back on my life, I find that that was my first mentoring lesson from John."

Banks said Jacobs' commitment to service continued to have an impact on him for approximately five decades... and eventually led him to leadership roles of his own in the Gainesville Kiwanis Club and Greater-Hall Chamber of Commerce, among other organizations.

"And when I did, John was always a person I could go to, and I could seek his help and his counsel and his involvement," he said.

And involved he was. Jacobs was devoted to countless other organizations, leaving a lasting impact on people like Mike Banks and the community as a whole.

"John Jacobs has made a mark on this community in the number of men and women he's mentored, said Banks.

Jacobs would have celebrated his 89th birthday on Monday.