“Understanding science and its usefulness” was a theme in Kenneth Jacob’s life and one that he parlayed into a successful career in the Air Force and later his own television repair business in Montauk.
Mr. Jacob, called Jake by his friends, died on Aug. 10 at the Acadia Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in Riverhead. He was 91 and had been ill for three months.
“As a child,” Mr. Jacob “liked to take mechanical toys apart to see how they worked and then put them back together,” his family wrote.
That early interest in practical physics continued at the Bronx High School of Science, after which he worked for a time as an electrician for the New York City subway system and then joined the Air Force, where he trained in radar and other defense technologies on postings in this country and overseas. He was eventually assigned to supervise one of the tracking systems with the Strategic Air Command at the 773rd Radar Squadron in Montauk, where one of the many radars that once operated at Camp Hero remains a distinctive feature of the hamlet’s skyline.
During his time there, he became one of the first to use computer chips, which were employed to “increase accuracy of surveillance of the U.S. air space,” his family said. He “continued to add to his knowledge of computers and information systems on his own and on assignments, becoming so proficient that IBM attempted to recruit him,” they said. “The Air Force refused to give him up.”
When he retired as a senior master sergeant in the 1980s, he opened Ken Jacob’s TV, a television repair shop in downtown Montauk, and built apartments above it.
Mr. Jacob was born in the Bronx on June 27, 1934, to Daniel Jacob and the former Teresa McIvor. He met his future wife, Susanna Blum, while stationed overseas. The two were married in March 1956. Their first daughter was born overseas, their second arrived after their return to the United States. The family settled in Montauk in the 1960s.
Mr. Jacob was a member of the Montauk Point Lions Club and was active in St. Therese of Lisieux Catholic Church, where he was a driving force in its renovation, involved in both finance and systems upgrades.
As he became older and his sight failed him, he spent most of his time working on projects at home using visual aids. “Conveniently, he had done all the wiring in the house when it was built, and had it memorized,” his family wrote.
His wife died in January 2017. Mr. Jacob is survived by his daughters, PJ Delia and Maura Jacob, both of Montauk, and by a grandson, Jake Delia, two sons-in-law, Joe Delia and Robert Bonavolta, and a sister, Ann Danzi of Virginia.
A service was held at St. Therese on Aug. 19. Mr. Jacob was buried at Fort Hill Cemetery.
