Dr. Robert "Bud" Jacobs

Lawrence – Dr. Robert “Bud” Jacobs, a longtime resident of Lawrence, passed away on February 20, 2026. A Memorial Service will be held 2:00 PM, Saturday, April 25, 2026, at First United Methodist Church, 946 Vermont Street, Lawrence, KS, 66044. A Celebration of Life Reception to follow.

Bud was born in 1944 in Marfa, TX, the only child of Robert William and Elizabeth Francis Jacobs. The family moved to Pauls Valley, OK, in 1950, where he became an Eagle Scout. He graduated from Pauls Valley High School in 1962, and attended DePauw University, Greencastle, IN. He graduated from the University of Oklahoma in 1967, where he was a member of Sigma Nu fraternity. At O.U., he met Sheryl King of Oklahoma City, and they married in 1967. He then attended the University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Dentistry, graduating in 1971. He entered the United States Air Force as a Captain and served as a General Dental Officer at Maxwell AFB, Montgomery, AL, being honorably discharged in 1973.

Returning to Kansas City, he entered a Residency Program in Pediatric Dentistry at Children’s Mercy Hospital and completed the program in 1975. He started his private practice of Pediatric Dentistry in Lawrence in June of that year, and he, Sheryl, and their children moved to Lawrence in 1976. Bud practiced for 37 years in the Medical Arts Building and was one of the few pediatric dentists who accepted Medicaid patients in the state. He retired from full-time practice in 2012, but continued to care for patients in the operating rooms of Lawrence Memorial Hospital, fully retiring in November 2015. Bud was past president of the Douglas County Dental Society and the Kansas Society of Dentistry for Children and was elected a Fellow of the American Society of Dentistry for Children in 1988. He was also a member of the American Dental Association and Kansas Dental Association. Additionally, Bud was an active member of the Lawrence Memorial Hospital medical staff for 40 years

and served as its Chief of Surgery from 2001 – 2003.

Bud and Sheryl have three children: Robert King Jacobs (Michelle), of Lawrence, KS; Jennifer Elizabeth Higdon (Andrew), of Denver, CO; and David Andrew Jacobs (Lauren), also of Denver, CO. He was blessed with seven wonderful grandchildren: Riley, Kingston, Gabe, Haddon, Pierson, Beck, and Bayla.

Bud proudly served in the Lawrence community. He was a long-time member of the First United Methodist Church, where he was an usher, and a valuable contributor to several committees. He was in the Monday Noon Rotary Club and served as its newsletter editor for 15 years. He was a Rotary Paul Harris Fellow. He was a charter member of Alvamar Country Club, where he loved to play golf with his friends and family. In retirement, he volunteered at KU’s Audio-Reader Network and the Lawrence Public Library. While residing in Hilton Head, SC, he actively worked at Volunteers in Medicine.

In lieu of flowers, memorials may be directed to Audio-Reader Network of Kansas, First United Methodist Church of Lawrence, Boy Scouts of America Troop 53 of Lawrence, and Volunteers in Medicine Hilton Head Island in care of Warren-McElwain Mortuary.

“Bud the Stud” loved Lawrence, Kansas and will be dearly missed!