JACOBSTEIN, J(oseph) Myron 1920–2005

OBITUARY NOTICE—See index for CA sketch: Born January 27, 1920, in Detroit, MI; died March 25, 2005, in Danville, CA. Librarian, lawyer, educator, and author. Jacobstein was a former law professor and librarian at Stanford University. While he was attending Columbia University, the United States entered World War II and he enlisted in the U.S. Air Forces. Stationed in New Mexico, he spent the duration stateside. After the war, Jacobstein completed a B.A. at Wayne State University in 1946, followed by his master's degree in library science at Columbia University and a law degree in 1952 from the Chicago-Kent College of Law. The next year, he was admitted to the State Bar of Illinois. While working on his law degree, he was employed as a librarian at the University of Chicago Library. Combining his two interests, he then became assistant law librarian for the University of Illinois in the mid-1950s. From 1955 until 1959 he did similar work for Columbia University, after which Jacobstein joined the University of Colorado, where he was a professor of law and law librarian for four years. Finally, in 1963, he joined the Stanford faculty as a law professor and librarian. He remained there until his 1987 retirement. In addition to his academic work, Jacobstein was on the executive board of the American Association of Law Libraries from 1973 to 1975 and was the organization's president from 1978 until 1979. For this work, he was honored with the Distinguished Service Award from the American Association of Law Libraries in 1987. Jacobstein was also the author or editor of several books on law and legal research, including Fundamentals of Legal Research (1973; seventh edition, 1998), Legal Research Illustrated: An Abridgment of Fundamentals of Legal Research (second edition, 1981; sixth edition, 1994), and The Rejected: Sketches of the Twenty-six Men Nominated for the Supreme Court but Not Confirmed by the Senate (1993).

OBITUARIES AND OTHER SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

American Libraries, May, 2005, p. 57.

San Francisco Chronicle, April 2, 2005, p. B5.

ONLINE

Stanford Report Online, http://news-service.stanford.edu/ (April 13, 2005).