Princeton Volunteer to Receive Award; Continues Search for 'Practical Solutions'

Matthew Hersh

Claire Jacobus does not volunteer for the glory, nor does she do it simply because it feels good. She does it because she feels that there are larger issues at stake that need to be addressed through finding practical solutions to problems that cannot necessarily be addressed through bureaucracy.

"When you help inoculate 700 seniors [against influenza], you don't think about being recognized," she said.

As the new chair of the Friends of the Princeton Public Library, Ms. Jacobus will receive the Leslie "Bud" Vivian Award for Community Service. The award, which is given by the Princeton Area Community Foundation, was established in 1995 by members of Princeton University's Class of 1942 to recognize a person who best exemplifies the qualities of the late Mr. Vivian. Among Mr. Vivian's many hats was that he was a long-time University Director of Community and Regional Affairs.

It's easy to spot these qualities in Ms. Jacobus as she rarely speaks of herself, but of her relationship with her community.

She has served on the boards of Community Without Walls, the Princeton Senior Resource Center, and the Princeton Adult School. She has also volunteered her time to community organizations, including the Human Services Commission, the Strategic Planning Committee for the Medical Center at Princeton, the Joint Municipal Commission on Consolidation of Princeton Borough and Township, and the Rockingham Association.

"Doing good doesn't have to do with community service," she said. "It's a question of practical solutions."

Ms. Jacobus used the recent spate of hate fliers circulating in the Borough as an example of how volunteer service can help find solutions to community problems. The fliers, which were identified as the work of the white supremacist group, the National Alliance, defiled African Americans with accusations of deliberately spreading HIV and AIDS.

"What do you do about that?" she asked. "There needed to be an intellectual approach [that responded] to that terrible piece of paper."

Ms. Jacobus considered the hate fliers the result of sweeping ignorance on issues of race. She emphasized that well-educated persons would reject such messages while recognizing the truth of the matter. One of her goals as the chair of the Friends of the Public Library will be to get every child in Princeton a library card.

"I think what's important is that people understand that community service has a deeply intellectual underpinning that involves conceptual and abstract thinking in order to be effective," she said. "It's more than being present, you have to understand the processes that inform these acts."

"My two greatest passions are freedom of choice and the access to literature and books," she said. "I mean, just a public library card," she emphasized shaking her head.

Ms. Jacobus believes that the new library will prove to be an academic oasis in the downtown, saying that the future facility will "provide all kinds of access to information – which is crucial."

"It is our deepest community resource, and I should hope that our sister institution, the Arts Council [of Princeton], can stay on the opposite corner and flourish." With that, it is impossible not to notice the abundance of books in her Borough home. In the living room alone, two tables teem with books that apparently didn't fit on the shelf, or, more likely, are in "mid-read." While her collection consists of both fiction and non-fiction, many of the books are similar in that they are pieces of social commentary, most notably from authors like Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Henry Louis Gates.

"I can't imagine not reading. I'm a cereal-box reader, I read anything there is to read," she said.

Ms. Jacobus is married to David Jacobus, a physician. Together, the couple owns a small pharmaceutical company that manufactures drugs for leprosy, malaria, and tuberculosis. With their five children, the Jacobus' came to Princeton in 1970. At that time, Ms. Jacobus served on the school committee of the Princeton Friends School.

She attributes certain Quaker qualities learned in her tenure at the Friends School as ones that she has used as a community servant. "I have been deeply influenced by the Quakers," she said. "I believe in consensus, it takes a long time and drives everyone crazy, but ultimately, everyone feels better."

After serving on the boards of the Princeton Senior Resource Center, she began editing medical manuscripts. Ms. Jacobus had written for the New Yorker and the Washington Post prior to her family's move to Princeton.

In 1977, she got a position editing manuscripts at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center with "a sharpened pencil and a copy of the Chicago Manual of Style."

In 1992, medical grants and funding began to dry up and she decided to leave before she "got fired." While she worked in the medical profession, she acquired a passion for working in Planned Parenthood. After 14 years, she continues to do counseling at Planned Parenthood in Trenton. "[Counseling] is, along with the library, my deepest commitment," she said.

"I think it is extremely important to get as close as you can get to walking in somebody else's shoes," she said. She added of herself, "when you're a well-dressed, white lady, it is extremely instructive to really talk to somebody that is 16 years old, possibly abused, scared to say anything, and without anybody to talk to. It's tough."

This "disconnect" as many may see it, is simply a gap that can be bridged, Ms. Jacobus said. As someone who has spent so much time doing her part in the community, she has come to "loathe the words 'they' and 'them'." She feels that the instinctive need to separate oneself from the problem is the most destructive thing a community can do.

"Education, enlightenment, and enrichment are the best representations of community service," she said. "They make the cornerstone of the community."

However, she recognized that her situation is unique and that not everyone can devote significant amounts of time to causes about which they feel strongly.

"I do what I do because I want to. I do it because I choose to," she said.

"You don't know whether it's going to make any difference, but you have to keep trying."