Alice Jacob (née Greer) died peacefully on July 15, 2022 in Westerly Hospital in Westerly, R.I. after succumbing to Alzheimer’s disease. Born in New York City on July 11, 1941, she was raised by her grandparents in Ridgefield, N.J. and later resided in Teaneck, N.J. and Hackensack, N.J. She is survived by her husband, Arthur Jacob of Block Island, R.I., her two sons, Drew Jacob of Jersey City, N.J. and Joseph Weiss of Hillsdale, N.J., wife Brenda, two grandchildren, Ella Weiss and Joey Weiss, and her stepson, Louis Jacob of Denver, Colo. and his wife Renae. A devoted wife and mother, Alice raised her children to live selflessly and take seriously the responsibilities of citizenship, regularly exhorting them to “love easily” and “aim high”.
As a teenager, Alice was employed as “The Amazing Headless Woman” in a sideshow of Palisades Amusement Park and was part of many entertaining illusions, the secrets of which she never divulged. She graduated from the Academy of Holy Angels, and as an adult, she built a career in healthcare, culminating in her role as Director of Admitting at Englewood Hospital in Englewood, N.J. Alice’s mother sang professionally as a coloratura soprano, her father was an Irish tenor, and, as a young girl, Alice accompanied her parents on multiple European tours. Alice herself was an accomplished soprano and sang in St. Andrew Roman Catholic Church on Block Island as well as in the choir of St. Anastasia Church in Teaneck, N.J. She also sang on Billy Stubbs’ piano in Dead Eye Dick’s on Sunday nights, after all the tourists had left the island. A deeply spiritual lover of music, she was fond of quoting St. Augustine: “He who sings prays twice.”
Alice was an avid photographer. She attended Fordham University at Lincoln Center in New York City where she graduated in 1989 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Media Studies, focusing on photography and journalism. After graduating from Fordham, Alice embarked upon a career as a professional photographer. She was inspired by the 1993 Block Island wedding of Ted Kennedy, Jr. and Kiki Gershman and subsequently studied wedding photography with Dennis Reggie, who was the photographer at the Kennedy wedding. She went on to photograph more than 100 weddings on Block Island and abroad. Her photographs have been exhibited in galleries on Block Island, in New York City, and other venues nationwide.
Alice loved Block Island. She first came to Block Island in the summer of 1979 and has spent time every summer since on the island, first as a renter and then, since 1994, in her own home, “Whimsy Cottage” on Center Road.
A funeral mass will be held at St. Andrew Roman Catholic Church on Block Island on Saturday, July 23, 2022 at 12:30 p.m. All are welcome to attend and celebrate Alice’s life.
Contributions will be welcomed at St. Andrew Roman Catholic Church on Block Island, Congregation Sons and Daughters of Ruth on Block Island, the Block Island Volunteer Fire and Rescue Squad, and St. Anastasia Church in Teaneck, NJ.