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Richard Jacobs
On Saturday, August 26, 2023, Richard passed away peacefully with his family at his side. He was kind and funny and wise and he will be greatly missed. Before his passing, he and his wife Joan created an environmental law charity to help combat climate change. In memory of this amazing person, if you would like to donate you can find it here: https://www.stetson.edu/law/forms/jacobs.php
To learn more about Richard's fight for the environment
and our democracy, follow his blog page,
Richard Jacobs graduated from the University of Wisconsin in 1954, with a degree in business. He earned Phi Beta Kappa and other honors. After military service and a career in the life insurance business, he graduated from Stetson University College of Law in 1967, Magna Cum Laude, first in his class. He was admitted to practice in June 1967, after achieving the high score on the March 1967 Florida Bar examination. As a practicing lawyer, he attained an Av rating and was included in Best Lawyers in America. He is also a member of Stetson University College of Law’s Hall of Fame. After more than five decades practicing business law, he “mostly retired” in 2013; and, in 2014, wrote Wonderlust, the stories of the lessons learned in his trekking the seven continents.
His civic activities have included his being chairman and trustee of his community hospital and arts center and serving as a trustee of his law school and other educational institutions. Motivated by the lessons learned in his travels, he also devoted his attention to environmental, sea-level rise, and global warming issues, as a writer, speaker, and a lawyer, working particularly close with Our Children’s Trust and Stetson College of Law. Democracy of Dollars grew out of his experiences in being thwarted in problem-solving environmental issues by government inaction when action is needed.
A lawyer by training, a photographer by passion, he has been fortunate to have trekked and photo'd on the seven continents — and those experiences have shaped his life and understanding the nature of our responsibilities for the care of each other and our earth, the only home we will ever have.
HELP FIGHT CLIMATE CHANGE
In celebration of his 90th birthday, Richard "Dick" Jacobs's publisher has released his new book, Democracy of Dollars. The book grew out of Dick's own experiences in being thwarted in problem-solving environmental issues by government inaction when action was needed. The book is a call to action for all Americans to return our nation to a "democracy of people".
Dick and his wife, Joan, have made a generous gift and a significant portion of their estate to establish the Dick and Joan Jacobs Public Interest Environmental Law Clinic and the Institute for Environmental Justice at Stetson University College of Law. The Institute will provide governmental organizations, as well as legal and non-legal communities, with a wide variety of environmental law-related public interest services — while molding law students to become the difference makers to care for Mother Earth. Additional funds are needed to secure the Institute in order for it to produce the long-term, positive results the Jacobs’s envision.
To encourage others with a similar passion for the environment to financially support the Institute, the couple has donated autographed copies of Democracy of Dollars to be distributed to donors who make a minimum gift of $500 to support of their vision. Simply use the link below to make your gift and a copy of Dick’s latest book will be delivered to your door.