Jacob '08 dies after long struggle with cancer

Lindsay Jacob '08, a comparative literature concentrator, died June 15 in Philadelphia after a long battle with Ewing's sarcoma, a rare form of bone cancer. She was 21.

Jacob served as secretary of the equestrian team her sophomore year and was a member of Kappa Kappa Gamma. She contributed to the Nassau Literary Review and wrote for The Daily Princetonian as a freshman.

Jacob, who lived in Washington Crossing, Pa., was a graduate of the Hun School of Princeton, where she played varsity soccer and was on the staff of the Hun Review, a literary magazine. She received the Donaldson Merit Scholarship when entering Hun as a sophomore and was selected by teachers as the first-ever student speaker at commencement.

"Lindsay was an inspiration in that she handled every aspect of her life," her mother, Laurie Jacob, said. "We let her show us the way, and because of it she made life wonderful for all of us."

"She was determined not to dwell on what was physical but to take it and make it the least invasive for as long as she could."

According to a statement from the Hun School, teachers often called Jacob "a gifted writer" who worked very hard to achieve her goals. Her high school ceramics teacher, John Sabol, described Jacob in an email as "a warm cheerful interested student" who was "very determined."

Though Jacob was diagnosed with cancer when she was 15 years old, she was very private about her medical condition. The scarf she wore on her head was the only evidence of Jacob's illness. "It was never a topic of discussion," Sabol said, adding that he never realized the seriousness of Jacob's illness.

Jacob was also a responsible person. "She never missed her lessons, always did her job," Allison Harding '08, co-captain of the equestrian team, said. The week before she passed away, Jacob emailed Harding asking where to send a $20 check that Jacob owed her.

"She was a really good rider — she rode the tougher horses and never mentioned anything to us," Harding said, adding that Jacob frequently took on handling the troubled horses.

Jacob was a trained dressage rider, which involved a different style of competition from the University equestrian team's form of show jumping. She was keen on starting a team that would be dedicated to this different style and had spoken with Harding to learn how the equestrian team managed finances. This past year, Jacob had also shown enthusiasm for a donated horse that was a trained dressage horse. "She had talked about how she could retrain the horse [into a jumper horse]," Harding said. "She was always around to help."

Funeral services were held on June 17. A memorial co-hosted by the Jacob family, the Hun School and the University will be held in the gymnasium of the Hun School on Oct. 7 at 2:00 p.m. Details of the memorial are still in the planning stages.

Jacob is survived by her parents, Stuart and Laurie; her sister, Jennifer Jacob, and her grandparents, Blanca Jacob, Sheila Engel and Michael Rosenblatt.