Karen Jacob

Karen Arlene Jacob died at her home in Ithaca, New York on September 15, 2024, following a two-year battle against cancer. She entered hospice in early September and passed away quickly with family at her side. Jacob was sixty-nine years old.

Before moving to New York in 2023, Jacob lived for 34 years in the Michiana area, primarily in Goshen, Bristol and South Bend, Indiana as well as Niles and Buchanan, Michigan. She was the wife of David Cortright, the former President of the Fourth Freedom Forum, based in Goshen, Indiana, and participated frequently in the organization’s meetings and business trips. She was especially fond of visiting Sweden and Scotland.

Jacob was born in Milford, Connecticut on June 1, 1955. After graduating from high school in 1973, she worked as a secretary, draftsperson and school bus driver and for two years drove an 18-wheel truck cross-country. She worked for several years as office manager at Promoting Enduring Peace, a Connecticut-based organization promoting disarmament and citizen diplomacy. She helped to manage and participated in peace cruises in the Soviet Union on the Volga River and in the United States on the Mississippi River, where she met her future husband. Jacob moved to Washington DC in 1988, where she worked as publications coordinator at Physicians for Social Responsibility. She and Cortright were married in Washington by the Rev. William Sloane Coffin in July 1989. They moved that month to Indiana where Cortright became a faculty member at the University of Notre Dame’s Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies.

Jacob received a nursing degree from Southwestern Michigan College in 1993 and worked for several years as a Registered Nurse. She served in the Goshen Hospital Emergency Room and in the cardiac rehab unit. Jacob co-founded the northern Indiana chapter of the peace organization, Women’s Action for New Directions (WAND). She later became chair of WAND’s national board of directors, a position she held for ten years. She also served as a board member and chair of the board of Promoting Enduring Peace.

Jacob graduated from Indiana University South Bend with a BA degree in 2000, specializing in art studies. She took art classes in Glen Arbor, Michigan and purchased a home in nearby Empire, Michigan, in the heart of Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore. She was a respected member of the local arts community in Northern Michigan and in Michiana.

Jacob’s artwork was recognized and celebrated a month before she passed away at a special event entitled “The Art of Karen Jacob” in Empire, Michigan, August 23-24, 2024. More than 70 of her paintings were sold, with all proceeds donated to charities, the Michigan League of Conservation Voters Education Fund, and the Empire Area Community Foundation. The event included a “Circle of Love” ceremony in which many people spoke of their admiration and gratitude for the love and joy she shared with so many.

Jacob was preceded in death by her father, Pierce Jacob and Arlene Eleanor Birge Jacob. She is survived by her sister Nancy Jacob Sullivan (Camas, Washington), her husband David Cortright (Ithaca, New York), her son James Cortright and daughter-in-law Ashley Eschbach (Miami, Florida), stepdaughter Catherine Cortright and son-in-law Mac Myers (Ithaca, New York), stepson Michael Cortright (Allentown, Pennsylvania), and grandchildren Ruth, William and Leo Myers (Ithaca, New York).

Artist, peace activist, former chair of a national women’s organization, registered nurse, truck driver, world traveler and mechanic extraordinaire. Karen Jacob did it all with a radiant personality and megawatt smile. She inspired all with her gift of love and eye for beauty.

A prayer service and celebration of Jacob’s life is scheduled for Friday, October 18, 5 PM at Assembly Mennonite Church, 727 New York Street, Goshen, Indiana. A reception will follow. Her ashes will be interred at the grave site of her parents in Connecticut at a later date.

In lieu of flowers, mourners are asked to contribute to national, state and local elections in her honor, especially to candidates who are women working toward equity and justice. Jacob was fond of the saying attributed to Mother Jones: mourn the dead but fight like hell for the living.