Joan Jacobs’ death on Monday at age 91 touched off a vast reaction in the San Diego community among the many residents who benefited from the staggeringly generous philanthropy of Joan and husband Irwin Jacobs, the co-founder of Qualcomm. The hundreds of millions of dollars they gave away indeed shaped the city’s “cultural, scientific and educational landscapes,” as The San Diego Union-Tribune’s thoughtful, detailed obituary chronicled.
San Diego Symphony, UCSD, the Central Library, the La Jolla Playhouse, the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego and the Salk Institute were among the many helped by the Jacobs’ generosity. But the couple also recognized the value of institutions that didn’t necessarily have cultural or educational cachet.
In 2005, when the future of the San Diego Food Bank appeared in doubt after a financial scandal, the Jacobs and business leader Stephen Cushman came forward to the charity and its extremely valuable work helping impoverished local residents. What became the Jacobs and Cushman San Diego Food Bank provides food at more than 200 distribution sites throughout the county every month and also is a key supplier to more than 500 nonprofit organizations that distribute food to needy individuals and families.
“Both Joan and Irwin shared a sense of responsibility to society that I have not seen in anybody,” said UCSD Chancellor Pradeep Khosla. “It was so unselfish.”
The Jacobs’ connection to UCSD led them to move to San Diego from the East Coast in 1966, when Irwin Jacobs accepted an offer to becoming a founding member of the then-young university’s engineering department. After Qualcomm launched in 1985 and emerged as a giant in global telecommunications, the family’s growing wealth led the Jacobs to give back.
In a 2017 interview with the U-T, Joan Jacobs said the couple’s philanthropy had its roots in their childhoods — Joan grew up in New York City and Irwin in New Bedford, Mass. “Our families were philanthropic, but on a very different level,” she said. “We both came from very humble homes. We’re very fortunate to be able to do what we’re doing now.”
The 3 million-plus people who call San Diego County home should all be thankful for this. The editorial board s the many who offer our best wishes to of the Jacobs family on the ing of their matriarch.
