Longtime Inverness Park resident Sue Jacob, a former
executive director of West Marin's Environmental Action Committee, died
Monday, October 3, from lung cancer. She was 73.
Mrs. Jacob joined the EAC shortly after its founding
in 1972, eventually serving as vice chairman, then chairman, and finally
as executive director. During her 15-year tenure, the EAC became the
most influential environmental group in West Marin, protecting the wetlands
of Tomales Bay and joining with other organizations in preventing construction
of a proposed six-lane highway from the Golden Gate Bridge to Point
Reyes Station.
An indomitable meeting-goer both locally and in Sacramento,
Mrs. Jacob maintained a schedule of appearances in front of the county's
planning commission, its board of supervisors, and the California Coastal
Commission.
Sought compromise with ranchers
In 1987, after friction developed between Mrs. Jacob
and some EAC members who perceived her as being too protective of ranchers,
she resigned from her post as executive director.
"Some friends saw her as polarized, but in fact she
was very much for working things out," her son Matthew Jacob told The
Light on Tuesday. In the interest of compromise between environmentalists
and ranchers, "she wanted [EAC members] to take a less activist stance."
When a wall of mud shoved through her Inverness Park
home during the storms of 1982, the devastation took an emotional toll
on her and she withdrew from public life, continuing to work behind
the scenes.
Born in Seattle on Oct. 15, 1931, Susanna Polsky
grew up on a farm in Beaverton, Oregon. Her parents, Philip Polsky,
a businessman and former boxer, and Pearl Goldstein Polsky, who played
the organ in theaters, were children of Russian Jewish immigrants who
came from Europe directly to the Pacific Northwest.
Left college, joined beats
Young Sue attended Reed College for a year, followed
by two years at the University of Oregon, which she left in 1952 to
join the Beat Movement in San Francisco. She settled in North Beach,
worked odd jobs and in 1956 married Bernard Jacob.
Her husband earned his law degree at UC Berkeley's
Boalt Hall, and the family moved to Washington, DC, where Mr. Jacob
clerked for Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas. A year later Los
Angeles became their home. Mrs. Jacob completed her bachelor's degree
at Cal State Northridge and taught English composition at San Fernando
Valley College.
In 1967, she and her husband divorced, and Mrs. Jacob
and her son moved to Inverness Park.
While earning her teaching credential at Sonoma State
University, she taught at Tomales High School. She later worked a variety
of jobs at Margaret Todd Senior Center in Novato, where she also taught
classes in Mystery Fiction.
Shrewd and impassioned, in her later years Mrs. Jacob
lived quietly, traveling occasionally and reading voraciously. While
she grew up in the Northwest, her voice made others think of the cadences
of Brooklyn. She smoked like a chimney and was a tippler with a fondness
for Irish coffee.
‘World-class cook’
"She was a world-class cook," added her son. Her specialties
included menudo and hand-ground liver. An unfulfilled life dream was
to open a small restaurant with a few tables in which she would serve
a prix fixe, elegant menu.
Mrs. Jacob was predeceased by her brother, Anthony
Polsky.
She is survived by her son and daughter-in-law, Matthew
Jacob and Mary Hower; and grandson, Joseph Jacob, all of Menlo Park;
and her nephew, Philip Polsky of Maine.
A memorial service to be held in West Marin will be
announced.
Family members suggest that any memorial contributions
be made to Marin Agricultural Land Trust.