The following is part of a donation by the family of Charles Theodore Jacobs.
Charles Theodore Jacobs
(September 12, 1925 – May 27, 2017)
Charles T. Jacobs was born and raised in Kenosha, Wisconsin. At the age of 18, Charles enlisted in the U.S. Navy and proudly served our country on board the U.S.S. SIMS (APD-50). Upon his return from WW2 in 1946, Charles began taking classes at Beloit College under the GI Bill. Charles took some pre-med courses, but quickly became more interested in archaeology, anthropology, and geology. In the summer of 1948 Charles took part in an archaeological excavation at Diamond Bluff, Wisconsin, which was described in the newspaper article found below.
In 1949, Charles headed south to Indiana and took part in a summer field school at Angel Mounds under the direction of Glenn A. Black.
In June of 1950, Charles graduated from Beloit College with a Bachelor of Arts degree with majors in anthropology and archeology. Shortly after graduation, Charles headed to Hazen, North Dakota, for a summer excavating trip with the River Basin Survey (RBS), a unit of the Smithsonian Institute. The RBS archaeologists had a prioritized list of sites to excavate and study before the sites were destroyed by the reservoir waters of various flood control, irrigation, and hydroelectric power projects.
After his work on the RBS, Charles returned to Kenosha, Wisconsin. He got married, took a job in the insurance industry and moved to suburban Chicago to raise a family.
Charles never forgot the enjoyment and thrills he had working with fellow archaeologists as they uncovered artifacts that helped to understand, document, and preserve the history of Native American cultures. Charles loved to take his children and grandchildren to museums where he could show them exhibits about ancient civilizations. Whether walking in the woods or strolling on a vacation property, Charles would often stoop down to examine an object to see if perhaps it was an artifact from the past. He had the pleasure of speaking about the life of an archaeologist to his granddaughters 5th grade class.
In 1990, Charles attended an archaeologist’s reunion where he met several of his life-long friends from his digging days. Many photos and stories were shared about their archaeology adventures.