West Lebanon, New Hampshire

Thomas Edge Jacobs was born the 10th of January 1947 to Thomas Maloney Jacobs and Nancy Anne Edge in Baltimore, Maryland.  He died 20 May 2023 - a day and time of his choice.  He lived with metastatic colon cancer for five years.

His early years were spent in Govans, a Baltimore neighbourhood he loved for its alleys and constant activity.  He attended Roland Park Elementary and Baltimore Polytechnic Institute where he graduated at the top of the A Course and made many of his lifelong friendships.  He attended Brown University and added to those lifelong friendships. It can certainly be said about Tom that he made very good friends throughout his life, he was a good friend to many and held his friendships close for his whole life.

He led a peripetetic life after graduating from Brown - bicycle mechanic in Providence, Rhode Island, crab-digger and geodesic dome builder in Tenants Harbour, Maine, substitute teacher…anything to put off the inevitable choice of a career and after crossing off most careers settled on library service.

He attended Columbia University School of Library Service in 1974 and lived at the International House on Riverside Drive and met his wife, Margaret who was also enrolled in library school and lived at the International House. He would often say that the year in New York City while at Columbia was one of the best years of his life.  Margaret and Tom were married the 29th of November 1975 in Manning Chapel on the Brown University campus.  They left nearly immediately after the wedding for a job interview (for Tom) in Baltimore at the Baltimore County Public Library system which he got and they moved to Baltimore.  The next seven years were spent in Baltimore working for the BCPL and earning a degree from the University of Maryland School of Computer Science.

In 1981 Tom and Margaret moved to West Lebanon, New Hampshire and have been there ever since... in the same house they bought on Prospect Street in 1982.  They raised their three sons, Tucker, Jake and Gregory on Prospect Street  - a neighbourhood much like the Govans neighbourhood of his childhood in Baltimore -  where the boys grew up with a gang of kids and street hockey and driveway basketball and twilight kick the can and open doors.  Tom worked briefly for a small computer company and then the finance department of Dartmouth Hitchcock and eventually his own software company until he realized he didn't actually like the business world and preferred the company of young people and became a full time stay at home dad.  Nothing was better than that and all the notes he has received in these last few months from those same young people are full of thanks for the fun and the time spent with Tom.

Tom and Margaret did most everything together because their interests were so aligned - travel, hiking, biking, kayaking, dinners out with friends and recently enjoying their granddaughters, Charlotte (Charlie), Emily and Camila.

He was predeceased by his father, mother and stepfather, William Douglas Somerville, and his sister, Jan Jacobs Hyde. He is survived by Margaret, his wife of 48 years, his sons Tucker, Jake and Gregory, daughters in law, Hillary and Natalie, his sister Robin Morrill and brothers in law, Whitney Morrill and George Hyde and many beloved nieces and nephews and friends especially Bob Meushaw his best friend of 65 years, and the Brown University friends at Stites House.

Many thanks to Dr. Gabriel Brooks and the medical team at DHMC and Bayada Hospice for the wonderful care Tom received during his illness. Special thanks to Dr. Rachel Gaidys for offering guidance and support and making it possible for Tom to take advantage of Vermont's right to die law which gave him peace of mind at the end of his life.

Cabot Funeral Home in Woodstock is in charge of arrangements. An on-line guestbook can be found at cabotfh.com. There will be a private gathering in Baltimore in the Fall.