Paul H. Jacobs

Paul H. Jacobs

Paul Jacobs passed away Wednesday, May 28, 2025 in his retirement home in Verona, Pennsylvania, after a years-long battle with an auto-immune disease. He was 83 years old. He is survived by his wife Nancy, their children Steven and Susan, their spouses Julie Fiez and Clinton Ellinger, and his grandchildren Alex and Peter, as well as countless family and friends.

Growing up in Illinois farm country south of Chicago, Paul worked in the fields of South Holland as a boy picking tomatoes and onion sets. He fell in love with electronics early in life and always knew that was what he wanted to pursue "when he grew up." He was a ham radio operator, a hobby he shared with his dad, and to earn money for college he worked for TV repair shops installing antennas.

After graduating with his degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Illinois in 1964, Paul started his career at Motorola, Inc., where he met his wife Nancy on a company ski trip. In 1976, he briefly worked at Tram CB Radio in Laconia, NH before being lured to Harris Corp. in Rochester, NY. Paul was overflowing with novel ideas for radio products, and when the corporations he worked for didn't share his vision, he knew he had to strike out on his own to craft those ideas into the foundations for new companies.

He became an entrepreneur and founded four different companies – Sideband Technology Inc., Paul Jacobs Associates, Microwave Data Systems and Digital Radio Technology. At STI, Paul developed the first commercial system using Amplitude-Companded Single Sideband (ACSB), a form of AM that was able to provide voice communication with performance that rivaled FM systems while occupying a fraction of the bandwidth. MDS brought the first wireless digital communication systems to distributed industrial sites, removing the need to run telephone lines across a customer's facility. DRT developed some of the first systems that automatically relayed performance information from aircraft to ground stations. All of these companies helped to employ talented workers in western New York state in the 1980s and 1990s, and MDS is still active. One of Paul's greatest sources of pride was that he provided opportunities for so many people, and helped to mentor their success.

Paul loved his cars – the Pumpkin, a 1954 Chevy which he rebuilt, his Olds 442, a T-Top Corvette, and his Blazer SUV, doing all his own maintenance. He and his brother Bob enjoyed motorcycles – a white Cam Am (one of the first with electronic ignition), his maroon Yamaha Virago and Virago 350, traveling cross-country to motorcycle meets with his friends.

He was a fan of the Chicago Bears (especially Dick Butkus who was a classmate at the University of Illinois); he followed the history of the Bears and Packers and later in life shared a love of the Buffalo Bills with his wife; he enjoyed auto racing in Wisconsin and at Watkins Glen in New York.

His musical education began with the accordion that he played until 8th grade, notably the William Tell Overture. He enjoyed country music, with a fondness for Johnnie Cash as well as rock and roll, but shied away from Broadway and opera.

Paul's retirement from his engineering career was also the beginning of his passionate pursuit of hobbies old and new. He became an instructor in the Electrical Engineering program at Rochester Institute of Technology, and helped to revolutionize their senior design project course, and he volunteered with the First Robotics team at the high school in his new hometown of Naples, NY. He continued working with ham radio, and began collecting and restoring vintage John Deere tractors. Paul soon discovered the need to fashion many custom parts for these projects, and built a complete machine shop in his basement, including a lathe, a vertical mill, a drill press and other tools. He also restored old radios, cleaning and repairing the electronics while a friend brought the cabinetry back to its earlier glory. He later became a youtuber, and his channel "max runout" features videos about his machine shop projects, including automatically fashioning custom gears using a computer-controlled mill.

Throughout this time, Paul and Nancy lived at "Jacobs Pond," a beautiful hill-top home they designed themselves and thoroughly enjoyed, with Paul using his tractors to maintain the property, while Nancy pursued her love for wildlife photography. Their grandsons Alex and Peter spent many a memorable summer with them, and a particular highlight was when Paul built a treehouse for them, complete with a zipline down to the ground.

Family and friends will be received on Wednesday, June 4, 2025 from 11 AM – 12 PM, with a Celebration of Life Service at 12 PM, at English Funeral Home & Cremation Services, Inc., 378 Maryland Ave., Oakmont, PA 15139. Interment to follow at Allegheny Cemetery in Pittsburgh, PA. In lieu of flowers, donations in Paul's memory can be made to the Antique Wireless Association at https://www.antiquewireless.org/homepage/donate/