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Dr. Donald Jacobs, longtime area family physician, dies at age 95

By BETSY BLOOM, Managing editor 6 min read

IRON MOUNTAIN -- Dr. Donald Jacobs, who treated generations of families during his more than 60 years practicing medicine in the region, died Sunday at Marshfield Medical Center-Dickinson. He was 95.

His daughter, Cheryl Jacobs, said her father stayed lucid and able to direct how he wanted to proceed until the end, which came "peacefully."

While Jacobs had been open about dealing with kidney failure that required him to undergo dialysis treatments three times a week, which ultimately forced him to bow out of practice earlier this year, it was his heart that ultimately gave out, Cheryl Jacobs said.

But she noted her father was able to play cards at his Silver Lake camp the week before. "He just was so happy, being able to get to camp," she said.

And she's grateful he had a final full summer that included a retirement celebration July 26 at Pine Grove Country Club that drew hundreds of former patients, colleagues, friends and others. They got to hear stories and recognition from the state, city and University of Michigan, his alma mater.

"The outpouring of support was overwhelming," Cheryl Jacobs said of the event. "That he could live to see that -- it's rare to be a part of that."

His full obituary is on page A-2. Visitation will be 3 to 6 p.m. Thursday at Jacobs Funeral Home in Iron Mountain. Funeral services will be at 10 a.m. Friday at St. Mary's Orthodox Church, 311 W. D St. in Iron Mountain, where Jacobs was a member; the funeral will be livestreamed on the church's Facebook page, https://www.facebook.com/StMarysIronMountain/.

Born in 1931 to a man of Lebanese descent and an Italian immigrant, Jacobs was the second of three sons. They all grew up in Iron Mountain to have notable careers. Jack, the eldest, became a longtime Ironwood attorney before retiring to Bradenton, Florida, where he passed in January 2024 at age 94. Paul, an orthodontist in Iron Mountain, was also noted for his participation in ski jumping, both as a competitor and a judge, including at the 1980 Olympics in Lake Placid, New York. He passed in October 2023 at age 90.

But it was Don Jacobs who perhaps played the biggest role in the region.

After finishing medical school at the University of Michigan in 1957 and doing a two-year residency in Saginaw, Dr. Jacobs returned to Iron Mountain in 1959. He first set up practice on Main Street before moving to a building on B Street across from The Braumart theatre, which he shared with optometrist Dr. Robert Baker Sr.

Coming from an era when specialists were rare, Jacobs delivered 529 boys and 518 girls from 1959 to 1986, performed surgeries -- including C-sections and gall bladder removals -- and made house calls for 30-plus years. He also was longtime medical director at ManorCare, now Optalis Health & Rehabilitation of Kingsford.

In a Daily News profile July 3 after his retirement, Jacobs noted he'd see people whether they could pay or not, sometimes giving money to those openly struggling. He'd accept other forms of payment.

"That was the way you did things in those days," Jacobs said. "We were trying to give to the community. Not to take, to give. The way medicine used to be."

From 1996 to May 2018, Jacobs had a clinic and pharmacy in the Felch Township Community Center, open on Monday evenings and Thursdays. Patients came not just from Felch but Sagola, Ralph, Breen and West Branch. It only closed when Dickinson County Healthcare System was financially struggling, before it became Marshfield Medical Center-Dickinson in 2022.

To read the full profile, go to https://www.ironmountaindailynews.com/news/local-news/2026/07/a-win-win-dr-jacobs-reflects-on-a-lifetime-of-care/.

He and his wife, the former Sally Turosky, had three children -- John, a pipefitter; Fred, a retired West Iron County math teacher; and Cheryl, who works at the University of Minnesota dialysis clinic and is responsible for getting donor kidneys.

Cheryl said while they got used to having their father being called away, he still managed to regularly be at games and events.

"When he was there, it was a gift … we were just awe-struck, the work he was doing, God's work he was doing," she said, later adding, "We never felt short-changed."

In his final years, Dr. Jacobs still stayed active at the Family Medicine office as long as he could. Derrick Schinderle, a family nurse practitioner and doctor of chiropractic who began working with Dr. Jacobs at the Marshfield Medical Center-Dickinson offices in 2019, called Jacobs "my mentor and my best friend" in an email statement Tuesday. He was the last to train under Jacobs.

"At 95 he was still the brilliant, kind and deeply caring family doctor this town knew by name. Medicine, faith and family were the three loves of his life," Schinderle said. "His teaching and guidance changed my life forever. His humor was quick and witty, his forgiveness even quicker. He lived by the Golden Rule, and if you knew him, you were family. In one of our last conversations, doc said, 'I never had a bad day in my life, I did what I love.'"

Marshfield Clinic released this statement Tuesday:

"We're greatly saddened by the passing of Dr. Donald Jacobs. For more than 65 years he devoted his life to caring for patients, mentoring colleagues and strengthening the health of the Iron Mountain community. Dr. Jacobs' compassion, clinical excellence and commitment to his patients touched countless lives over several generations. His life was defined by service and we are grateful for the extraordinary legacy he leaves behind."

His colleague, Dr. Dave Mahadev, came to Iron Mountain in 1978, working at first at the Oscar G. Johnson VA Medical Center before Dr. Jacobs introduced him at what then was Dickinson County Memorial Hospital, where he became the first cardiologist on staff.

"He was really kind-hearted, very dedicated to his patients," Mahadev said.

"You could not find a better doctor … very gifted, very caring," he said, noting, "He was my doctor, too." They became good friends as well, Mahadev said.

That wasn't surprising, Cheryl Jacobs said. Watching her father at his retirement event, she was struck by how "he was a friend to all; he just fit in anywhere."

Said Cheryl Jacobs, "He was the GOAT."

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Betsy Bloom can be reached at 906-774-2772, ext. 85240, or bbloom@ironmountaindailynews.com.

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