Jerry and Mary Jacobson established a fund in the name of Jerry's parents after his father, Gerald, passed in 2006. Because Jerry was instrumental in founding the Community Foundation of Chippewa County, they knew it was a meaningful way to honor and remember the elder Jacobsons with a gift that would benefit their community forever.

They fully endowed the Gerald H. and Ann C. Jacobson Fund, giving it a head start at making an impact. Ann, now 96, has been able to see the good that results from the fund as grants are distributed, and as the endowment grows.

According to Jerry, Gerald was a machinist and an arduous worker his entire life. He graduated the eighth grade and went straight to work, and he served in the U.S. Army Military Police during World War II. He loved the outdoors and was a fisherman and a small game and deer hunter. For that reason, this Field of Interest Fund supports grants in the areas of wildlife and the habitats of parks in Chippewa County.

"His biggest hope for my sister and me was to go to college," said Jerry, adding that Ann was a homemaker until the siblings were in high school, and then went to work at First National Bank in Chippewa Falls. "All of their efforts-and some of it was hard, hard work-were to make things better for their kids."

Gerald may be gone, but his legacy of love and hard work lives on. Jerry's sister, Julie, retired nearly 40 years after becoming an art teacher. Jerry, who worked for 47 years in community banking, retired as CEO of Northwestern Bank in Chippewa Falls.

"All of the funds we've created honor the people we've loved," said Jerry. The most recent were established in the name of Mary's parents, Warren and Virginia Wermund, and her brother Dave Wermund. The Jacobsons have made it a practice to give these funds annually and keep building them up, knowing they can keep doing good long after they are gone.