Happy 100th Birthday Jerry

(This letter was written by Owen Pye)

Westchester resident and decorated World War II veteran Dr Jerome ‘Jerry’ Jacobson turns 100 years old on Saturday.

A lead bombardier in the 15th Air Force, Jerry was discharged in 1945 having earned the rank of captain, and having been awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross (DFC), the nation’s highest award for extraordinary aerial achievement.

Jerry was born in Jamaica, Queens, on 18 February 1923, one of six children, growing up in the Bronx and later Saranac Lake, NY, in the Adirondack Mountains. Here he learned to ski from a young age, a lifelong passion he pursued until he was 87 years old.

Attaining the highest rank of Eagle Scout in the Boy Scouts of America, Jerry enlisted into the Army Air Corps in August 1942 as a 19-year-old, and was called into service to defend his country that October. Jerry was promoted quickly due to his ability, rising through the ranks to become a lead bombardier flying B-17s out of Foggia, Italy.

Upon his return from the war, he graduated with a degree from the Columbia University of Optometry. During this time, he met the love of his life and future wife Maura Bandler, then a kindergarten teacher (and as Maura B. Jacobson, going on to become one of the nation’s favourite crossword puzzle creators for New York Magazine).

Married in August 1948, they went on to have a daughter, Joanne, and later two grandchildren and three great-grandchildren. Jerry lived in the Bronx for a great deal of his working life, where for 31 years he ran an optometry practice on West Kingsbridge Road. He spent the next 30 years living in Hartsdale, and now lives in Briarcliff Manor.

Renowned for his kindness, generosity and humour, Jerry has been interviewed in the US and given talks to UK schoolchildren on his wartime experience.

Once described in the book Untold Valor: Forgotten Stories of American Bomber Crews over Europe in World War II as a ‘master of understatement’, Jerry’s modesty and humility regarding his life’s achievements are a measure of the man, who quietly still goes to the gym for an hour every morning and puts in three miles on his exercise bike a couple of times a week.

The DFC is awarded to those in the Air Corps who ‘distinguish themselves by heroism or extraordinary achievement while participating in an aerial flight’, although you’ll never hear a word of it from Jerry, who didn’t even tell his own grandchildren he had the medal until he was 99 years old.

Jerry’s niece, Sue Babcock, said: “Jerry is a one-of-a-kind special human being, a true gentleman, and always has a smile and kind word for everyone.”