IVCC library named after Dr. Henry Jacobs
By the Library Committee
Some of you know that the name of IVCC’s library is Jacobs Library, and you may have noticed the plaque in the library honoring him, but do you know who Jacobs was?
Dr. Henry J. Jacobs was born on Jan. 1, 1912, of immigrant parents. After graduating from Hall High School and LaSalle-Peru-Oglesby Junior College (IVCC’s predecessor), he received his medical degree from the U of I in 1937.
Holding the rank of Army Colonel, he served overseas during World War II as head of the 201st and the 66th general hospitals.
On June 29, 1944, he married Vesta Kern, a registered nurse, and they raised three sons, Joseph, James, and Jon, all of whom attended IVCC.
After the war, Dr. Jacobs came back to Spring Valley to practice medicine. He was a staff member at St. Margaret’s Hospital for nearly 35 years, until his death on April 8, 1971, of a massive heart attack. He was 59.
From 1955 to 1967 Dr. Jacobs served as director of the Spring Valley Civil Defense Unit, and he was cited by the State of Illinois for his efforts.
His best-known achievement was an incident written up in Time and Life magazines in 1959. Dr. Jacobs was assisting in the cleaning and setting of a fracture on a 19-year-old at St. Margaret’s. The young man was about to be wheeled out of the operating room when his heart stopped.
The surgeon Jacobs was assisting cut open the young man’s chest and started to massage the heart, but it went into ventricular fibrillation, which is fatal unless shocked back into a normal beat. St. Margaret’s did not have a defibrillator, so Dr. Jacobs ripped a cord from an electric fan and ordered a silver-plated spoon from the nurses’ coffee break room.
Jacobs bared the wires, wrapped one around the spoon and placed it against the heart. He wrapped the other wire around a retractor and placed it against the shoulder. A third man plugged the wire in.
The heart calmed down after four jolts and resumed beating normally. The people of Spring Valley chipped in to help buy a $350 defibrillator for the hospital after that incident.
As a self-made man, Dr. Jacobs was interested in education. He served on the Spring Valley Elementary School Board, the Hall High School Board, and the IVCC Board of Trustees from its beginning in 1967 until his death.
Dr. Jacobs was listed in "Who’s Who in the Midwest," the "2,000 Men of Achievement," "Dictionary of International Biography," and "National Social Register."
It is with pride and gratitude that we study, learn, and work in Jacobs Library.
(This feature was prepared by a committee in IVCC’s Jacobs Library.)
Oct. 8, 1998 the Apache