The consummate friend and advocate for IU students, faculty, and staff, David Henry Jacobs attended the IU School of Music in the early 1970s. President of David Jacobs Fine Art, which matches private art collections with public institutions, and owner of Stilllife Construction, which redevelops properties with historic and architectural merit, David believes in relationship-based philanthropy and how individuals and organizations can come together to achieve shared goals.
Over the years, David has both continued and enhanced his family's longstanding support of IU. In 2005, the Jacobs family gave the school $40 million, dedicated solely for undergraduate and graduate scholarship. In gratitude for this monumental gesture of philanthropy, the music school is now the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music. The catalyst behind this gift, David encouraged his mother to invest in the promise of education.
A member of the IU Foundation's board of directors since 2006, David is a founding member of the Women's Philanthropy Leadership Council, Black Philanthropic Circle, and the IU Queer Philanthropic Circle. In 2011, David received IU’s Distinguished Alumni Service Award and, in 2018, the Visionary Award from the Gay Lesbian Straight Education Network (GLSEN). David currently serves as philanthropy chair for the Jacobs School Dean’s Advisory Council.
David has connected the school to new philanthropic partners, funded new operatic works, and seeded the Jacobs School of Music Student Support Fund, which provides time-sensitive assistance to Jacobs students facing unforeseen hardship. He helped the Jacobs School acquire over a dozen new pianos. And, in 2015, David made his own monumental gesture of philanthropy: a $20 million gift to the Jacobs School. The majority of the gift funds the Jacobs Family Bicentennial Scholars and Fellows in Honor of Charles H. Webb, recognizing his lifelong friendship with emeritus dean Charles Webb and his family.
From his enthusiasm to his genuine interest in bettering the world through education, we are grateful to celebrate David with the Herman B Wells Visionary Award.
