Donald Raymond (Jake) Jacobson, 93

Donald Raymond Jacobson

Nov. 15, 1929 – March 26, 2023

Donald Raymond Jacobson was born in Garwood, Idaho on Nov. 15, 1929, to Rudolph Ernest Jacobson and Alma Lydia Owen Jacobson.

He spent his childhood in northern Idaho. From first grade to his freshman year he attended 27 schools in northern Idaho and Western Montana. He spent his summers with his grandparents John and Anna Louise Flygar Jacobson, both immigrants from Sweden, with whom he was very close.

He left school in Thompson Falls during his freshman year to go to work in the woods with his father, Rudy. He worked in every aspect of the logging industry starting with horse logging, sawing with a two-man cross-cut saw (nicknamed the Swede fiddle or the misery whip) and a two-man chainsaw. He owned a logging truck and held just about every job in a sawmill working his way up to head sawyer. In 1967 he moved his family to Polson where he was eventually promoted to superintendent at the Pack River sawmill.

At 18 he was living with his dad and step mother at “the cabin” on the Thompson River, which is now back in the family. He left there in September of 1948 to travel to Seattle to join the Marines then on to San Diego and Camp Pendleton.

From there he was sent to Guam where he got his love of volleyball and where he was injured. He rehabilitated back at Camp Pendleton and soon after his cast came off his leg he was sent to Korea.

From September to December 1950 he was involved in four major battles. He was a member of the “Chosin Few” as he was in one of the most famous battles of the Marine Corps – The Chosin Reservoir campaign where 15,000 troops were surrounded by 120,000 Chinese and had to fight their way out to the ocean.

The weather in Korea that winter dipped below -40 degrees and he suffered frozen fingers and toes. He was sent back to Camp Pendleton in December 1950.

While on leave he met Rose Mary Mitchell and they married in October 1951 and their first child was born in June of 1952 at Camp Pendleton. He was discharged in August 1952 and they moved back to Idaho. He went back to work in the woods and in sawmills for most of the rest of his career.

From 1952 to 1962 they had six children: Jeri Lynn Sturm (Roy), John Henry Jacobson (Twilla), June Rae Jacobson (who died when she was 3), Jill Kay Campbell (JC), Judy Ann Jacobson and Jodi Bishop.

In 1995 he met Carla Lane Allen and they were together until the end. They started spending winters in Yuma, Ariz., in 1995 where they square-danced and he played volleyball until he turned 90. He remained the Volleyball Patriarch until mid-March when his illness accelerated. He was surrounded by family and friends the last two weeks of his life, which he enjoyed very much.

He is survived by Carla, all of his children and numerous grandchildren and great-grandchildren.