Jake's grandparents and most of his relatives were small farmers in Iowa. When his father, Max Jacobson, came home from the Second World War in Europe, he decided that mining would provide a better life for his family, so he drove them to New Mexico for college. After graduating with a degree in Mining Engineering, the family moved from one mining boom town to the next in Arizona and New Mexico. Some of the towns were rough. Jake was a stranger and a minority most of the time. But there was always something interesting to do.