Robert Eakin Jacoby Jr. ’51
Bob passed away peacefully July 31, 2021, at his home in Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla., after a highly successful career as an advertising executive and a philanthropist.
Born in 1928, he joined us in January 1948 after graduating from Bogota (N.J.) High School and serving as an Army sergeant in Japan. Graduating Phi Beta Kappa in 3 1/2 years and majoring in economics, he was a member of Elm Club and roomed with Dick Korner.
Following a meteoric career as an account executive serving major corporations and an industry pioneer in global marketing, Bob served as president and CEO of one of the nation’s leading advertising agencies, Ted Bates Worldwide. A hard-charging, cigar-smoking executive, he engineered the firm’s merger with the British giant Saatchi and Saatchi, creating one of the world’s largest
ad agencies.
Upon retirement to Ponte Vedra Beach in 1986, Bob became one of the leading members of the Jacksonville philanthropic community, with interests in the Jacksonville Symphony and the Robert E. Jacoby Symphony Hall and with the Cancer Research Center at the Mayo Clinic’s Jacksonville facility.
Bob is survived by his wife of 67 years, Monica; and four daughters.