By Jimmy Klau
Peter Jacobson was Temple Beth Shalom’s fourth president, serving from 1971-1973. Under his leadership, our current building was located, purchased and renovated. We moved in shortly after Peter passed on the reins of leadership to his successor, the undersigned. Peter grew up in Atlanta and has the Southern accent to prove it. He received his Naval Commission under the NROTC Program upon graduation from Georgia Tech and served as a Navy officer for a number of years before entering the private sector. One of the highlights of his naval career was serving under Admiral Byrd on an expedition to the South Pole from 1955 to 1957. As a result of this trip he became a lifelong collector of penguin figurines.
With his then wife, Anne, Peter came to Puerto Rico in the early 1960’s. An engineer by profession, he was the real estate and construction person for Pueblo Supermarkets in their growth years during which they went from six to thirty two stores, built the Distribution Center in Carolina and the Holsum Bakery in Bayamon. Eventually Pueblo reached their limit and lent Peter to the group that was planning the construction of Plaza Las Americas Mall. He was in charge of the building of this shopping center which was one of the largest constructed anywhere up until that time. Upon completion of the project, Peter went into business for himself and, not too long afterwards, left Puerto Rico and moved to Houston, Texas where, with the exception of a few years back in Puerto Rico in the ‘90’s, he has remained ever since.
In November, Sue and I were in Houston for the URJ Biennial and arranged to meet with Peter and his current wife, Joan for an afternoon and evening of sightseeing and dinner. It gave us a chance to catch up with each other, our families and our lives for the last thirty years. Peter and Joan were very gracious and gave us an insider’s view of Houston sights and lifestyles. They live in a lovely home with their boat tied up on the canal at the edge of their lawn. Besides Peter’s ever expanding collection of penguin figures, the home contains lots of works of art (many dating from Peter’s Puerto Rico days), modern furniture and a huge cage full of finches of various types (who knew that finches come in so many flavors). The finches cage hangs over an indoor pond containing large numbers of goldfish, some quite large, who dine on the birds’ table scraps. Nothing goes to waste in the Jacobson household.
Peter flies both model planes and real planes. The models hang in his garage and it appears that he can build and maintain them with ease. His garage also contains a formidable appearing motorcycle on which he rides with the local (executive type) Hell’s Angels. The large planes which he flies reside elsewhere. Peter still takes on projects which are interesting but claims to be pretty well retired. He and Joan have children and grandchildren from their previous marriages and spend much of their time on visiting trips.
According to Peter, TBS was the high point of his religious career: he never affiliated Jewishly after leaving Puerto Rico. Joan is Catholic. Anne Jacobson (Peter’s first wife) never remarried and also lives in Houston. When we last saw her some 25 years ago, she was a Travel Agent but is now retired.
There can’t be too many people remaining in our congregation who remember Peter Jacobson but you can take my word for the fact that he was a super president; fantastically well organized and a first class delegator of work. Barbara Ezratty served as his Corresponding Secretary and he kept her hopping. The Jacobsons lived in Ocean Park in the same condominium that houses the apartment in which our visiting rabbis stay. Peter left the island about 30 years ago but Puerto Rico is full of stores, shopping centers and other construction which bear his mark. Temple Beth Shalom’s home, our building on San Jorge Street, would not be ours if it were not for Peter’s efforts.
