John Henry Jacobsmeyer Jr.

Gen. Jacobsmeyer (known to family as “Jack” and to friends as “Jake”) passed away in the early morning hours of May 24, 2018. Jack was born in 1930 in Portsmouth, NH to John H. and Priscilla (Hooper) Jacobsmeyer Sr. He and his brother, Bill, grew up there during the Great Depression and World War II with the hard working, small community values of that period. He graduated from the University of New Hampshire in 1952 with a bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering. As a distinguished military graduate of the AFROTC program, he entered active duty with an assignment to missile and flight testing.

Jack’s first career as a USAF officer lasted for 29 years, with duties in communications research and development interspersed with graduate studies at the University of Michigan and the Air War College. He also served in Saigon from 1971 to 1972 during the Vietnam War, supervising combat communications. The last nine years of his career were spent with the North American Air Defense Command and as Vice Director of the Defense Communications Agency. His awards and decorations include the Legion of Merit and the Distinguished Service Medal.

After Jack’s retirement from the Air Force in 1981, he returned to New Hampshire, settling in Northwood in a now 232-year-old farmhouse to operate Spring Run Farm, where he raised Black Angus cattle, provided some defense consulting services, and supported town affairs. The latter service included being a town Selectman, the Water District Commissioner and other planning and organizational positions.

Jack was always a formidable intellect, seeing connections and patterns that most others would miss, and he often regaled friends and family with great stories ranging from his official duties in the Air Force to the daily tasks of managing his cattle operation. Although his professions were in engineering and agriculture, he also had a knack for artistic design that became visible in a number of his home projects. Jack was a man with many more projects to accomplish than could ever be finished, and he would have had it no other way.

Jack is survived by his wife of 65 years, Patricia (McDonough) of Portsmouth; his brother William Edward (Anna Mae) Jacobsmeyer, and by his children, Joanne Elizabeth (Matthew) Sprott, Jay Michael (Joyce) Jacobsmeyer, Susan Eileen (Paul) Kowalski, John Henry III (Katrina) Jacobsmeyer, eight grandchildren and one great-grandchild.

Funeral services will be held on Thursday, May 31 at 10:00 am at Christ Episcopal Church, 1035 Lafayette Rd in Portsmouth, NH. A military service and burial will be held the same day at 2:30 pm at the New Hampshire State Veteran’s Cemetery, 110 Daniel Webster Hwy, Boscawen, NH.

In lieu of flowers, please send a donation to the Disabled American Veterans Charitable Service Trust, PO Box 14301 Cincinnati, OH 45250.

Arrangements are entrusted to the Bennett Funeral Home of Concord. Fond memories and expressions of sympathy may be shared at https://www.BennettFuneral.com for the Jacobsmeyer family.