Highland Park Obituary: Phyllis Jacobs, 92

Phyllis Jacobs died on Thanksgiving Day in Palo Alto, California at the age of 92. She was a wife, mother and grandmother, a community leader, a world traveler, a gardener and a mensch.

She was born Phyllis Leaf on May 10, 1927 in Chicago, the daughter of Sol and Bertha Leaf, and the younger sister of Marshall Leaf. It was a happy childhood: Her father owned a candy company.

In 1948, Phyllis earned a degree in English at the University of Michigan, where she was president of her sorority, Sigma Delta Tau. She married Alan J. Jacobs in 1949. Other men had proposed, but he was the one who made her laugh.

As he built a career in advertising at Bozell & Jacobs, she raised their four children in Highland Park. She was active in the League of Women Voters, Lakeside Congregation for Reform Judaism, the PTA, Girl Scouts, the Human Relations Commission and other groups.

Alan and Phyllis moved to Newport Beach, California in 1972, where they joined the Society for Humanistic Judaism and became leaders of the Pacific Community of Cultural Jews. They also were active in the Philharmonic Society of Orange County and the Baroque Festival of Orange County.

They traveled to many places in Europe, Japan, China, Australia, India and Central America, often making new friends on Stanford Alumni Association trips.

An energetic gardener, Phyllis created a beautiful rose garden.

After her husband’s death in 2006, she carried on in Newport Beach until moving to Palo Alto in 2013 to be near her daughters.

Her older son, Peter Jacobs, died in 1998. She is survived by her children, Peggy (Rich Richardson), Joanne (John Wakerly) and David (Lisa), and her grandchildren, Allison Hunter, Alan and Lee Richardson and Virginia, Capella and Christopher Jacobs.

A memorial is scheduled for Sunday, Jan. 19 at 11:30 am at Etz Chayim, 4161 Alma St., Palo Alto.