Helga E. Jacobson

October 30, 1935 - March 19, 2019

Helga Eileen Jacobson was born in Berlin, Germany, October 30, 1935 to German Jewish parents who escaped to England in 1939. While her Holocaust scars never ceased throbbing, she made her way independently in the world from age 16, working at night to support herself while going through University of London, London School of Economics, and Cornell University in Anthropology, all on scholarships including a Fulbright. She went on to teach Anthropology and helped create the Women's Studies Department at University of British Columbia in Vancouver BC. She was on faculty for 26 years. She loved teaching undergrad students how to think and they loved her because she challenged them and cared about them. She was a proud feminist and fought for gender equality and spoke out against gender-based violence against women long before this term existed.

Helga leaves behind Naida Hyde, her former life partner of 32 years. Helga was loved for her broad-ranging intellect, her generous heart, and her spunky sense of humour. She was her own woman to the end, and she changed lives with her kindness. When she smiled, her face lit up a room. She took early retirement and moved to Nelson, BC with Naida to create and run a women's healing centre, RavenSpirit. Her grief at leaving academia never totally abated. She got metastasized breast cancer in 2000; however, she beat a doctor's death sentence and was proud of living until age 83. On coming to Victoria in 2007 she started a long slide into heart disease. She died March 19, 2019 at Trillium at Douglas Care. Warmest thanks to all the staff who loved Helga and treated her with great kindness and care.

Helga requested a green burial at Royal Oak Burial Park. The arbutus tree and the beautiful vista out over trees to the mountains mirrors her passionate life.

Helga loved T.S. Eliot: "What we call the beginning is often the end. And to make an end is to make a beginning. The end is where we start from."