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The family of Raymond B. Jacoby ’57 and Lafayette share a long history together.
It began with his grandfather, Walter I. Jacoby ’01. Those who followed include he and his father, Raymond I. Jacoby ’26; older brother, Walter I. Jacoby ’52; twin bother, Roger B. Jacoby ’57; son, Peter G. Jacoby ’81; niece (Roger’s daughter), Marjorie Jacoby Steiner ’82; and great-nephew, Christopher B. Jacoby ’07.
The reason for this exceptional attraction to Lafayette?
“We didn’t know that there was any other college that had football,” he jokes, noting that his father took him and his brother to Leopards football games when they were growing up.
Christopher has been receiving financial assistance from the Jacoby Family Scholarship that the family established to honor Walter. Christopher reportedly will be the first Lafayette student to graduate with majors in electrical & computer engineering and music. He performed in Spain and Portugal with other Lafayette students during an interim-abroad course last year, and performs with several campus choral and instrumental groups. He conducted research involving Latin jazz and Salsa music through Lafayette’s Community of Scholars program and is a Reeder Scholar.
Peter has been special assistant for legislative affairs to President Clinton and is vice president of congressional affairs for AT&T.
Despite the proud tradition of Lafayette legacies and childhood years cheering against Lehigh, Raymond B. Jacoby helps lead an alumni chapter shared by Lafayette and Lehigh alumni in Burlington, Vt. The only chill between the alumni is the Vermont weather. The group’s activities and trips strengthen the members’ ties to each other and their alma mater.
“There is a responsibility that alumni have,” says Jacoby. “Some can do better volunteering and serving in leadership roles because they don’t have the money to donate.”
Jacoby is enthusiastic about helping graduates through mentoring and alumni chapters. Noting the increasing number of international students, he looks forward to seeing Lafayette establish chapters in places like China.
An experienced fundraiser and former executive at the national YMCA and the United Way, Jacoby says he has worked on organizing more chapter events that appeal to women. Previously, he helped establish and grow chapters in Atlantic City, Chicago, Naples, Fla., and Wilmington, Del.
He is proud that Lafayette continues to shine and attract quality students.
“I think the school is better than when I went there,” Jacoby says. “Students who go there are just incredibleSome of these kids are brighter than I ever was.”
Jacoby may be a little modest, considering that the history major went to Iran in 1957 and taught at Abadan Institute of Technology, established to provide an education to Iranian technical staff in the oil industry.
Culled from throughout society, the Iranian students were both fun to teach and dedicated pupils, he recalls. Jacoby would later work in Libya. While living in the Middle East posed some challenges, Jacoby says he was always struck by the differences in culture on his return trip home. Six years ago, he and other former teachers returned for a reunion at the school, where they were welcomed back without hesitation.