By Max Eberts, WSU Foundation, WSU Insider
Puyallup’s very own Gary ’67 (MME ’71) and Merilyn “Mimi” ’69 (MM ’76) Jacobson love talking about their students. They have devoted their lives to teaching music and creating a world of learning, a world their WSU professors created for them when they were students.
“They showed us how to teach, but they also taught us that learning is all about making a better world for your community and those you love,” said Gary.
Longtime supporters of WSU’s School of Music, the Jacobsons recently took their generosity a step further by establishing the Dr. Merilyn Smith Jacobson and Gary A. Jacobson WSU School of Music Student Success Fund with a $5,000 gift to support undergraduate and graduate student success in music education and performance.
The human connection and intangibles of their WSU experience
Gary was a WSU senior when Mimi arrived. He first noticed her in their orchestra performance class—she played the cello, he the trumpet. But Mimi had far too much on her mind to notice Gary at the time. Back home in Richland, WA, her brother had been diagnosed with terminal cancer during her senior year of high school—devastating her family.
Mimi had planned to attend either Smith College or Indiana University School of Music, but attended WSU to be near her brother. As a 16-year old, she had won the performance competition at the WSU High School Music Summer Camp, and since then, Dr. Jerry Bailey, WSU’s celebrated piano instructor, had been recruiting her to WSU, and so her first year, Mimi threw herself into her piano and cello performance classes, practicing six hours a day as a way to deal with her brother’s cancer.
She finally noticed Gary’s trumpet playing. On their first date, they went to the A&W Drive-in—they took off with the mug on a dare. For their second date, they went to a movie—Barefoot in the Park—after which they became a couple. “This has to continue!” they both recalled.
They both breathed, played, and talked music. “Music creates an aesthetic that moves us all because humanity is at the heart of it,” said Gary.
And they loved their WSU music professors, who not only taught them a great deal about playing music through rigorous classes but also about what it means to live a meaningful life. “They cared about our education, but they also cared about us as developing human beings,” said Gary.
“The WSU music faculty were the family that brought equilibrium to my life,” said Mimi. “I babysat Dr. and Mrs. Bailey’s three children. The Baileys and others came to our wedding. They cared about our future and understood what we were going through every step of the way. They were one of the reasons we embraced teaching.”
Gary, the first in his family to receive a college degree, went on to earn a master’s in music education at WSU, while teaching trumpet as a teaching assistant, and Mimi finished her bachelor’s degree in piano performance.
Blooming where you’re planted
As they were completing their WSU educations, the nation was bitterly divided by the Vietnam War. “The war pushed many of us, especially those who opposed it, into education or medicine, including me,” said Gary, “as we received occupational deferments.”
Gary was thrilled when he received a position as the director of the instrumental program and band director at West Junior High School (now Aylen JHS) in the Puyallup School District.
Meanwhile, Mimi, a talented pianist, had a major decision to make: would she pursue piano performance in graduate school or would she marry Gary? According to Mimi, that was an easy decision.
Several years later after starting their married lives in Puyallup, Mimi learned that as a result of her participation in concert and chamber music performances, as well as master workshops, she was only hours from gaining her master’s degree. In 1976, while pregnant and caring for a sick child, she completed her WSU master’s in piano.
Meanwhile, Gary instilled rigor in his junior high students. “I started with the basics: ‘this is how you hold your instrument; this is how you breathe when you play.’ And while junior high schoolers are rarely rational beings,” he joked, “they can see when someone is interested in their playing, and they want to be a part of the discipline of making music. I also saw the difference it made in their other classes.”
Likewise, Mimi taught piano, converting a large room of their house into a studio where she taught as many as 40 students in private and group lessons.
The young couple thrived, building a family and raising four bright, active children. “You bloom where you’re planted,” said Mimi, “and Puyallup became the home and the community we loved.”
Then in her forties, while Gary was teaching at Aylen Junior High School, Mimi earned a DMA (Doctor of Musical Arts) in piano with an emphasis in pedagogy from the Catholic University of America. She had wanted to teach at the college level but decided to use her knowledge and skills to better prepare talented young musicians for the rigor of conservatory-level performance, so she returned to her teaching in Puyallup with a new sense of mission.
Through the years, the pair has received accolades for their outstanding teaching as well as their performances. In addition to playing trumpet in the South Sound Symphonic Band, Gary was inducted into the Washington Music Educators Association in 2010. Mimi performed at venues ranging from the Aspen Music Festival to the International Music Session in Grenoble, France. She has also accompanied instrumentalists and singers in state and national competitions for precollege- and college-age students. But the teaching has always been the most meaningful part of their professional lives.
“Teaching is how we celebrate music and pass on the art, the skill, and a way of communicating that is often deeper than verbal communication itself,” said Mimi.
A life of dedication to students
The Jacobsons continue to give in their community through their teaching and performances, but they also have given to various existing scholarship funds in the WSU School of Music, including the Bob Miller Fund and the Jerry Bailey Fund—Bob Miller was Gary’s band directing teacher, and Jerry Bailey was Mimi’s piano performance teacher. But knowing that a music education comes with many expenses, from the cost of instruments to instrument repairs to participation in competitions to other experiential learning opportunities, they wanted to create a fund that helps students pay for those costs—hence, the Jacobson WSU School of Music Student Success Fund.
Director of the WSU School of Music Keri McCarthy praised the Jacobsons’ dedication to teaching and talked about the importance of their gift: “The Jacobsons have been powerhouse teachers who have impacted generations of musicians across our state. Their gift will immediately make opportunities possible for students in music performance and K-12 music education. We’re so grateful for their commitment to WSU musicians.”
The Jacobsons and WSU hope to see the fund grow, and WSU’s Annual Giving will feature their gift as a challenge during #CougsGive in April, WSU’s annual day of giving.
The Jacobsons have never forgotten their WSU years, which sent them on their path of teaching music for more than half a century, enriching the lives of generations of young musicians.
“Not a day goes by where we don’t talk about teaching music and our students,” said Mimi.
If you would like to give to the Dr. Merilyn Smith Jacobson and Gary A. Jacobson WSU School of Music Student Success Fund, contact Justin N. Smith, Director of Development, at jnsmith@wsu.edu or 206-793-8184.