LifeTimeline
Eva Jacobs
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Born
New York, New York
Eva Eisenberg grew up on the Lower East Side of Manhattan at Avenue D and 5th Street, the youngest of Max and Alice Eisenberg's 3 daughters. Though both her parents were first generation immigrants and early life wasn't easy, Eve never dwelt on the hard times. Instead her childhood stories celebrated her mother's savvy shopping, the many attractions of her hometown, and the joys of the Baba Rum at Veniero's Pastry. -
Eve Devours Education
New York, New York
Eva blamed the winter hike from the Lower East Side up to Washington Irving High School at Gramercy Place for her hands' extreme sensitivity to cold for the rest of her life; but she loved the school and impressed her teachers.
Then on to Brooklyn College, where she earned her B.A. in economics. Graduate work in at George Washington University would follow - along with the hundreds of lectures, mountains of books, and thousands of curious questions she would ask of anyone lucky enough to sit beside her. Eve would never stop learning. -
Move to DC
Washington, District of Columbia
Never just a pretty face, Eva moved to Washington D.C. in 1942 and began her career at the Wage and Price Control Administration. Eventually she would work more than 50 years at the Bureau of Labor Statistics, spending her last two decades there as Chief of the Division of Consumer Expenditure Surveys -- in other words, the person in charge of the Consumer Price Index. -
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The Jacobs Family Grows
Washington, District of Columbia
On May 6, Eve and Leon's second child arrived and Jonathan acquired his first sister, Alice. In a world with little or no fast food and many fewer family restaurants, Eve juggled family, work, and a busy social life in a way Sheryl Sandberg could envy. But family meals, holiday gatherings, and regular trips to New York for reunions with the extended family remained a priority. -
And Abby Makes Three
Washington, District of Columbia
On March 13, Abby Jacobs arrived and the Jacobs family was complete -- at least as far as biology was concerned. But the growing clan's move to a larger house would give more generous scope to Eve & Leon's natural hospitality. Over the decades to come, so many friends and relatives would spend days, weeks, and months at Morrison Street Leon would number the bedrooms just to keep track of who was sleeping where. -
New Zealand Adventure
Upper Hutt
New ZealandWhen Leon, then head of the Parasitic Disease lab at NIH, received a Fulbright to work in New Zealand, the whole family moved to the small town of Upper Hutt. Eve's diary of the time includes sharp observations on the cost of living in her new world, the quality of the food and drink, the challenges of "how to wash with a wringer washer and only one laundry tub," and the creative search for ever more hot water bottles. -
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Rehoboth
Rehoboth, Maryland
The moveable feast that followed Eva and Leon wherever they were found a new outlet when they bought a place at Rehoboth Beach, Maryland in 1967. For more than 3 decades their beach place would host family gatherings, groups of friends, and habitual renters whose happy visits were enthusiastically recorded in the well-worn guest books. -
Eve's Reputation as a Statistician Grows
Washington, District of Columbia
Beyond her leadership at the Bureau of Labor Statistics, Eve was increasingly called on to speak to a range of audiences on issues of consumer spending. Her induction as an American Statistical Association Fellow in 1982 noted her “innovative contributions in the application of statistics in the analysis of complex economic problems, particularly in the areas of consumer income and expenditure studies.” Her contributions to the field were honored again in 1998 with the Julius Shiskin Award for Economic Statistics. -
A Year Full of Changes
Washington, District of Columbia
In 1993, Eve retired from her full time job at the Bureau of Labor Statistics, though subsequent years would demonstrate how little she planned to slow down. That year also saw the weddings of two of her brood: Alice married George Roman in June; Jonathan and Elizabeth Sams tied the knot in November. -
Eva on the road
You Name It
Throughout her life Eva loved going places, and she made the most of her freedom in retirement and gave her curiosity free rein. She traveled with family members, friends, on continuing contract work. Alaska, Hawaii, Denmark, Italy, France, Israel, Las Vegas, Florida, Utah, Colorado...If airplanes went there, Eve was game. -
Statistics and M&Ms
Washington, District of Columbia
“Retirement” in 1993 freed Eva for a wide range of volunteering that included work with the Washington chapter of Learning Ally (formerly Reading for the Blind) and many years of hosting young foreign economists and lawyers for the month they would spend in Washington through the American Council Legislative Fellows Program.
But perhaps closest to her heart was RESET, a nonprofit education organization of volunteer science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) professionals whose mission is to motivate children to discover and explore the worlds of science and math. Eva credited much of her professional success to her public education and never stopped trying to give back, devoting more than 18 years as a RESET volunteer and board member. In this program, she tutored at various DC schools for years, using M&M’s to demonstrate probability and frequency distribution. After the lessons, the students were, of course, encouraged to eat the teaching materials. Copy this Youtube link to see Eve teaching her M&M method to other teachers: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y3BK7Ge9k0Y -
Family First
United States
In a modest concession to her advancing years, the woman her children fondly referred to as "the energizer bunny" restricted her last year or two of travel to the continental U.S. Characteristically, she focused those trips mostly on family, visiting children in Florida and Massachusetts, a nephew in Park City, Utah, with old friends usually on the agenda as well. In every place she visited, she is sorely missed.