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Upon graduation I attended Cuyahoga Community College part time and worked full time at the Veterans Administration Hospital on East Blvd in Cleveland. My work with long-term residential Vietnam, Korean, and World War II veterans sparked a passion.
In the Fall of 1969 I moved to Columbus to attend The Ohio State University. I graduated in June of 1973 with a BSc degree. I married Pauline Frey in 1974. We have two daughters Jessica and Shana and a granddaughter Brooke (Shana’s daughter).
In December (2021), Pauline and I celebrated our 47th wedding anniversary!
My first job, upon graduating from OSU was as a computer salesman. I worked in computer sales for the next nine years. My last computer sales position was with NCR Corporation. In 1983 I was promoted to the position of marketing manager and my office moved to Dayton, Ohio. Over the next ten years I held positions in many departments across the company. The functions included customer education, customer support, product management, industry management, IT support, software development, and executive support. I 1997, upon NCR Corporation's spin-off from AT&T, I was named President of IDEAL at NCR. IDEAL’s focus was to ensure that NCR’s products and services (ATMs, Retail POS terminals, Airport kiosks, etc.) were designed to be accessible by people with disabilities.
In December of 2002, I was offered an early retirement package as part of a company-wide downsizing. As part of my retirement package, NCR agreed to let me to spin-off IDEAL at NCR into my own computer services company. I reincorporated and renamed the company “IDEAL Group, Inc.” Since that time IDEAL has grown into a group of four subsidiary companies, three of which serve the technology access needs of people with disabilities.
IDEAL Group, along with its subsidiaries, are all Not Just for Profit (NJfP) corporations. Here's more information, in case you are interested:
IDEAL Group Projects 1992-2022
http://www.ideal-group.org/?p=1540
IDEAL Group Mobile Apps 2010-2022
http://www.ideal-group.org/?p=1751
IDEAL Group Subsidiary Companies
http://www.ideal-group.org/?p=1649
IDEAL Group Innovative Firsts
http://www.ideal-group.org/?p=1682
IDEAL Group Projects in Support of Individuals who are Deaf
http://www.ideal-group.org/?p=1320
InftyReader (a subsidiary of IDEAL) Research Studies Published on Google Scholar:
http://www.inftyreader.org/?p=2081
Well... that sums up my life over the past 57 years! I'm blessed to have been healthy enough to attend our 50th reunion get-together. I'm twice-blessed and will hopefully be attending our 75th birthday get-together in Cleveland!
Lastly, no, I'm not retired. I enjoy doing what I do too much. Yes. I am slowly, and hesitantly, succession planning into retirement. If I'm fortunate, this will happen when I turn 90!
If anyone would like to get in touch:
steve.jacobs@ideal-group.org
614-777-0660
10080 Gerich Lilly Rd.
West Jefferson, OH 43162
