Jacobsen carries a vintage smile with ease

By Kevin Wilson of the Daily Times staff
Friday, April 4, 2008 10:52 PM CDT

Steve Jacobson retired from teaching at Watertown High School in March due to a resurgent bout with cancer which is considered terminal. Jacobson taught for 18 years at the district, during which time he taught history, coached various sports, helped create the school’s peace garden and led a dozen summer trips abroad to teach students about the world.

At a time when it seemed so impossible for him to do, Steve Jacobson carried a vintage smile with ease.

Jacobson, a teacher at WHS for the past 18 years, worked his final day for the district on March 20 due to a resurgence of cancer in his liver which is considered terminal.

He held court during his final midday prep hour, welcoming a steady stream of faculty and friends who filed in one by one to say goodbye. While many of them choked back tears, Jacobson engaged every one of them with the same bright smile he had come to be known for.

“I would say I'm pretty at peace with it,” Jacobson said.

“I've always found in 99 percent of the things I've done Š if you smile, people are much more relaxed. There's no easy way to come and tell somebody they're going to miss them (when) they're dying. There's no easy way to do that. If I can make it easier Š”

ADVERTISEMENT

The statement was as emblematic as the smile for people who revere him. A man who admittedly made sure to do things in his life he enjoyed on his terms took just as much care to make sure others could benefit as well.

Jacobson, 53, made teaching and coaching his third career. Prior to coming to Watertown, he used his business degree from UW-Eau Claire to go into real estate. Later, he co-owned and operated the Northwest Title and Abstracting company in the Twin Cities.

“(The company) sells title insurance and does all the abstracting for people buying houses,” Jacobson said.

“I'd take care of all the legal aspects. I did that for about 10 years. Then I decided I really wanted to try education. I sold part of the interest in the company, went back to school for a year to get my teaching degree and certificate, looked for a job and came to Watertown.”

Jacobson spent the first two years working with emotional-behavioral disability students (EBD), then moved over to the history department. His Senior Seminars and AP European History classes were especially popular in later years.

“I did that (EBD) for two years,” Jacobson said. “After that, I taught history. Since then, I've taught different types. One thing that's been nice about Watertown is it allowed me to do a lot of different flexible things.

“Karla Mullen and I taught for six or seven years. We team-taught classes that were very popular. She was just fabulous. I learned a lot from her. She was definitely a great mentor.”

Mullen, since retired from a rewarding career teaching English and history, teamed with Jacobson to teach a two-hour World Studies and American Studies course for five years.

Their award-winning efforts led to an even more lasting venture - the school's Peace Garden, which was completed in November of 1996.

Simple and elegant by design, the garden has a small amphitheater on the north end, a large art sculpture on the south end and several marble benches throughout with famous quotes promoting peace next to the names of donors on plaques.

“I always had this idea Š there are gardens around the world,” Jacobson said. “There's a big one between Canada and North Dakota called the International Peace Garden. I had always wanted to start one, but I didn't know where or what to do. We had this new high school (in 1994) with a big opening. It was the perfect spot for one.

“That same year, Karla and I won the Joe Darcey Excellence in Teaching award. We got some money and put it into a Peace Garden account, ordered a bunch of trees and started planting. We started looking for donations. All peace statements were from mostly famous people like Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr. and John Lennon. Usually I had some choices. I always left it up to whoever paid for the bench. They wanted advice. I gave them 10 or so to pick from.

“It really enhances the school, makes it more welcoming. What better place than a high school to have a peace garden?”

Jacobson didn't stop at planting trees for peace. He planted the value of peace in the minds of scores of students.

He took students on annual summer trips to Europe, where they would tour three to four countries while staying in hotels and hostels.

“I traveled a lot before (coming to Watertown),” Jacobson said.

“I really wanted to encourage kids to go get out and travel. If they could travel with me and see how easy it was, I'd hope they would continue to do that. With that kind of an ideal, if you get to know people all over the world, the world becomes smaller. War between nations, if people know each other, is pretty unlikely. If you meet different people, you find out they are not much different than we are.”

When he wasn't abroad, he was running the school's International Club. He and WHS Guidance Counselor Jon Sterling took the International Club students out to breakfast every Friday morning at Frank's Diner downtown.

“He paid out of his own pocket for those kids,” Sterling said. “He's had a huge impact on our district.”

“I wanted to get those (exchange) students involved with our students, so our kids can really get to know those kinds of kids and say, ‘Gee, they like the same things we do,'” Jacobson said. “Any of those kinds of things help bind nations and people.”

Mullen considers Jacobson humble, noble and extremely driven.

“He left a very lucrative business to become a teacher,” Mullen said. “It was highly successful. He really had a calling to be a teacher, because he cared about the kids and about the world and issues about the world and world peace and history and having the students know that there's a big world out there.

“He was an inveterate traveler. He didn't do it for himself. He started taking those kids to Europe early on to let them see how the world is and to think about what it means to be an American, what are your responsibilities Š He was not interested in his own fame and fortune or acquiring any recognition for himself. There was a bigger idea he was committed to.”

Jacobson also made his mark at WHS in coaching athletics. He spent 10 years as the freshman coach under Patty Jansen, first with the volleyball program and later with the softball program. He was also a varsity boys basketball assistant under Bill Lechner.

He served as varsity girls basketball coach for four seasons from 1998-2002, then moved over to coach the varsity boys for three seasons from 2003-05. He took the girls to state in 1999. He won one conference title with the girls program and two with the boys program.

Though he served under Jansen for a decade, she was the one who felt like the understudy.

“I learned so much from him, it's amazing,” Jansen said. “That you can take so much from one person Š he's given me all the info about being a coach. Here was me, coming in young, trying to get excited about things. He was about giving kids chances, and doing the right thing. The kids are the most important part of what we do.”

It didn't always appear that way. Jacobson was notoriously fiery, and certainly didn't shy away from barking at his players.

“The thing about Steve is the passion behind when he does stuff,” Jansen said.

“He would just as soon play the game and never practice. He hated practice. He can just rip you up and down one day in practice and not remember it the next day. He has always been in the moment. He never held a grudge. We do things together. We win together. We lose together. What a gift. Instead of saying, ‘If Patty would have been able to get a base hit, we win.' He's never done that.”

Some fans didn't care for Jacobson's rabid demeanor during basketball games. But win or lose, Jacobson was always cheerful and smiling after games. It was as if he'd just completed a satisfying workout at the gym.

“He really was an enigma,” Watertown Daily Times photo editor John Hart said. “After a game, he was the most relaxed person you've ever seen. During a game, if you didn't know him, you might think he was a little bit crazed.”

Student-athletes like 2000 graduate Sara Cahoon fed off Jacobson's passion, be it in the classroom or at a sporting event.

“Steve's whole perspective on life was intense passion,” Cahoon said.

“It was never a bad intensity. It was always an intensity that made me want more. Everyone has an extra something, but it's not always easy to get it out. He knows how to push your buttons to get the best out of you whether it was in athletics or academics. He expects 100 percent of you and then you expect 100 percent of yourself. To expect more of yourself and to expect more of others around you, it makes you a better person.

“He is such an inspirational person. I'm so thankful that I've had the opportunity to meet him and have him as a role model in my life. How many kids has he taken on the Europe trips. Watertown is a small, sheltered community. He just opens up the door for so many people.”

Cahoon's experience with Jacobson almost didn't come to pass.

Jacobson was diagnosed with skin cancer, known as melanoma, back in the spring of 1997. The cancer had quickly spread to his spleen and liver, and he was given six to 12 months to live. Instead, fate granted him a reprieve.

“Each time he'd go in (to the hospital), it was gradually disappearing,” said Tom McGarvie, former Watertown wrestling coach and longtime roommate of Jacobson's.

“He'd had some lymph nodes removed from his leg. While they were considering treatment, it started to disappear. It kept getting smaller and they decided not to treat it at all.

“He always had an extremely positive attitude about everything. He had an ability to forgive and forget and move on. I'm convinced his positive attitude is what caused the cancer to disappear back in ‘97. It disappeared until about three years ago.”

Jacobson went through a half-dozen experimental treatments through UW hospitals over the last three years, but the cancer in his liver continued to grow. Finally, on March 14, Jacobson was given three to 12 weeks to live.

He taught four more days, right up until spring break. The next day, he left Watertown to stay with his mother, who lives near La Crosse in Holmen. He is currently receiving hospice care.

“It doesn't mean I'm not sad,” Jacobson said before he left town. “There are things I'm going to miss. I'm going to miss things I wish I could be there for. I love life. To see people (during that final prep hour) and hear them tell me all the things Š it kind of makes you feel good. It doesn't mean tears don't well up once in a while. Overall, I'm pretty at peace with it.”

That's mainly because Jacobson lived life exactly the way he wanted to, especially after he beat cancer the first time around.

“Do what you can - when you feel good, do what you can,” Jacobson said. “It's been selfish. It's been things I like to do. I got chances to coach at all different levels. I took kids on trips. I started new classes I wanted to try. It was about living life to the fullest, and on my terms. That was really important.

“I tell kids, at the end of your life, if you look back - if you've left more positives than negatives, you've lived a successful life. We all make mistakes, but if you can grade your own papers and you've got a good grade, and you've left something behind for mankind, you've lived a good life.”

Some people wanted to name the Peace Garden after Jacobson, but he would never hear of it, according to Mullen.

“He always got his way,” she said with a smile.

He might not in the long run where that garden's name is concerned.

“I'd like 20 years from now to have people want to know, ‘Who was that Steve Jacobson?,'” Mullen said. “I think he affected everybody, not only the kids but the people around him because he had such a passion for what he did. He lived it. He believed in it. He expressed it honestly. He wasn't a demagogue. I think he knows his life meant something.”