Thomas M Jacobs

Thomas M. Jacobs

Thomas M Jacobs  passed in the comfort of his home. Tom was born August 14, 1926 in Montreal, Canada, to Minna Wagner Jacobs and Milton Jacobs. Soon after his birth, he moved with his family to Berlin, New Hampshire. Tom graduated from Gould Academy in Bethel, Maine in 1944. He served in the U.S. Army in Okinawa and Japan from 1945 to 1947. In August 1949, Tom married a Middlebury College classmate, Marilyn Mulholland of Wellsville, New York. In 1951 he graduated with honors from Middlebury where he majored in Geology. 

Tom went to the University of Colorado at Boulder to do graduate work in geology. Selection and participation in the 1952 Olympic Games in Oslo, Norway, disrupted his studies; he returned to the university as ski coach instead of student. During his tenure as ski coach, he served as chairman of the NCAA committee on skiing and authored the NCAA rules for skiing. After coaching, Tom became the Executive Director of the National Ski Association in Denver, Colorado, and a year as director of the Steamboat Springs Chamber of Commerce and Winter Sports Club. In 1958, Tom moved his family back to Glens Falls where he was employed by Finch & Pruyn Paper Company as a sales representative for eleven years. 

From early childhood Tom was an avid skier and was proficient in all four disciplines of ski racing, including slalom, downhill, cross country and jumping. He had competed successfully all through high school and college, winning skimeister trophies for his four-event prowess, and was on the Middlebury team that won the 1948 National Collegiate Championships. At the 1952 Olympics, he competed in the Nordic Combined events of cross county and jumping. He continued his passion for skiing by filling many niches in ski sport and the ski industry both locally and internationally. Tom and Marilyn were owners of the Inside Edge Ski and Bike shop and a catalog business Reliable Racing Supply, now owned by their son John Jacobs. Tom founded the ski school at West Mountain, the Southern Adirondack Racing League and the Friends of Coles Woods. His many contributions to the sport and the industry led to his being inducted to the National Ski and Snowboard Hall of Fame in 2007. 

Tom was predeceased by a sister, Louise Jacobs Richter. He is survived by his wife Marilyn; his son Jeffrey Jacobs of Boise, Idaho; his daughter Diana Joaquin of Richmond, Virginia; and his son John (Susan Ide) Jacobs of Glens Falls. Surviving also are seven grandchildren: Jocelin (Jason) Kaplan; Courtney (Ernest) Quackenbush; Thembi (Jamal) Butler; Zuri (Justin) Brown; Jena Jacobs; John “Jake” Jacobs; Hannah (Thye) Bain; and twelve great grandchildren. 

The family wishes to sincerely thank High Peaks Hospice for their care and professionalism throughout Tom’s last days. In lieu of flowers and in memory of Tom, the family requests that donations be made to The Friends of Coles Woods, P.O. Box 294, Glens Falls, NY.