October 20, 2005

Norma E. Jacobson, 86, a retired missionary with HCJB World Radio, died on Monday, Oct. 17, after a short illness at Elkhart General Hospital in Elkhart, Ind.

Norma served in Ecuador for 40 years, using her skills in nursing and publicity, before moving to Elkhart with her husband in 1990.

Norma was born on July 14, 1919, in Brandt, S.D., and then moved with her family to the Rio Grande Valley on the U.S.-Mexico border. At the age of 10 she began to realize the need for foreign missionaries and dedicated her life for service.

After graduating from McAllen High School in Texas in 1937, she completed her nursing degree from the McAllen Municipal School of Nursing in 1940. Norma went on to study missions at St. Paul Bible Institute in Minnesota for three years (1941-1944) and one year at the Christian & Missionary Alliance Nyack Missionary Training Institute in New York (1945). In late 1946 she was appointed to serve as a missionary in Colombia.

While studying Spanish in Ecuador in 1948, she met Herb Jacobson Jr. She and Herb, a gifted engineer, were married on June 6, 1950, in Quito where they continued to serve on the mission field with HCJB World Radio.

Norma said that one of her most satisfying experiences as a missionary nurse at HCJB World Radio's Hospital Vozandes-Quito, teaching young mothers in the maternity ward how to care for their newborn babies. In those times she often had the joy of telling them the need for their spiritual life as well as their physical.

Norma also worked at mission clinics in Quito and Pifo. She was also involved in a weekly letter-reading radio program and helped out in publicity for several years before moving to Elkhart where her husband continues to serve at the HCJB World Radio Engineering Center. In addition, the Jacobsons were active in various outreach ministries through churches in Quito, Pifo and Elkhart.

Besides her husband, she is survived by two sons, H. Paul Jacobson, an engineer consultant in Mountlake Terrace, Wash., and Charles Jacobson, a missionary engineer in Elkhart, as well as four grandchildren. Funeral services will be held at McCoy Memorial Baptist Church in Elkhart at 11 a.m. Friday, Oct. 21. Burial will be scheduled at a later date in Minneapolis, Minn.

Memorial contributions may be directed to HCJB World Radio, designated for Hospital Vozandes-Quito. Online condolences may be directed to watermanfh@aol.com. (HCJB World Radio)