Carlyle F. Jacobsen PhD and Ellen Cook Jacobsen MD were both influential in the early years of Upstate Medical University. Carlyle “Jake” Jacobsen was the first President of the University and spent the later half of the 1940s establishing both Upstate and Downstate medical schools for the newly established SUNY system. He was a reknowned researcher whose work with fronal lobe ablation in chimpanzees was foundational for later work on human frontal lobes. Ellen “Cookie” Jacobsen was a 1950 graduate of the Syracuse University College of Medicine and the first woman to become a faculty member in the Department of Medicine at Upstate. She established the employee and student health services on campus and was the first faculty member to hold appointments in two departments (Medicine and Psychiatry). This exhibition celebrates their careers and highlights their many contributions to the history of Upstate. ;xNLx;
Carlyle F. Jacobsen, better known as Jake, was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota to Danish-American parents. Jake had a paper route in high school that included two local hospitals, allowing him to spend time in a hospital setting and to imagine a life spent there.
Ellen, better known as "Cookie", was born in Painted Post, NY to Charles Doc Cook and Mary Belle Miller Cook.
Jake completed his Bachelor of Arts at the University of Minnesota in his hometown of Minneapolis.
Jake received his PhD in Psychology from the University of Minnesota; he also minored in neurology and physiology. He worked as a Teaching Assistant and as an Instructor in Psychology for the University during this time.
Jake had a fellowship in Comparative Psychobiology at the Yale Anthropoid Research Center in Orange Park, Florida from 1930 to 1931. It was here that he made great strides in his studies of the frontal lobe, using chimpanzees as test subjects.
Jake was an Assistant Professor of Psychobiology and Psychology at Yale from 1933 to 1937. He took a leave of absence from 1936-1937 to serve as a General Education Board Fellow in Neurophysiology at Harvard.
Jake and John Fulton, another neuroscientist, presented the results of an experiment involving frontal lobe ablation in chimpanzees. The tendency of one chimp to become agitated when it made an incorrect choice during a memory task was eliminated by the ablation. Another chimp that was unconcerned by a wrong selection before the procedure, displayed agitation following an incorrect choice after the ablation. This research would be crucial to other scientists interested in frontal lobe functions in humans.
Jake was an Assistant Professor of Psychology at Cornell Medical College for one year.
The Howard Crosby Warren Medal is awarded for distinguished research in experimental psychology. Jake received this award for his work on the psychological and physiological functions of the frontal lobe.
Jake, along with Dr. John Fulton and Dr. Margaret Kennard, received this award for an educational exhibit of the functions of the cerebral cortex.
Jake was an Assistant Professor of Medical Psychology at Washington University in St. Louis for eight years. He also served as Assistant Dean from 1942-1946. He spent considerable time as a clinician during this period. He worked as a consultant Psychologist for St. Louis Children's Hospital, Bliss Psychopathic Hospital and St. Louis City Sanatorium.
Cookie graduated with her bachelor's degree from Cornell University.
Cookie completed her master's degree in Marine Biology; her thesis was titled Experimental Pancreatic Diabetes in the Calf.
Jake had also served at Minnesota, Yale, Harvard, Washington University, and St. Louis after completing his PhD. His primary interests were medical psychology and administration.
Based at the Central Office of the State University of New York (SUNY) in Albany, Jake was pivotal in the development of the Downstate Medical Center in Brooklyn and of Upstate in Syracuse.
Cookie was a member of the last class to graduate from the Syracuse University College of Medicine. The State University of New York (SUNY) purchases the Medical College from SU in 1950 and Cookie becomes the first female resident in Internal Medicine at the new SUNY College of Medicine at Syracuse.
Cookie was the first woman to become an instructor in the Department of Medicine at the newly re-named SUNY Upstate Medical Center. In 1957 she became an Assistant Professor and remained with the Department of Medicine until 1968.
Cookie organized the first Student Health Services department at SUNY Upstate Medical Center and served as the first Director from 1955 to 1968. Due to her experiences at Upstate she was asked to serve on the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) Committee on Student Health Services.
Jake spearheaded the move from the Downstate Medical Center quarters near Long Island Hospital to a newly constructed Basic Sciences Building in Brooklyn.
Jake took a partial leave of absence from his job as Executive Dean for Medical Education with SUNY to serve as Executive Vice Chairman for the Medical School Grants Advisory Committee of the Ford Foundation.
Jake was President during the formative years of both the Upstate and Downstate SUNY medical colleges. He was highly involved with the physical expansion of both campuses, as well as growing and expanding departments and programs of study at Upstate. Jake was also the Dean of the College of Medicine during this time. He appointed Julius Richmond to the Deanship in 1965.
Jake was an internationally renowned neurophysiologist and the newly appointed President of Upstate Medical University and Dean of the College of Medicine. Cookie was the head of Student and Employee Health Services and an alumna of Upstate.
Jake was instrumental in the push to establish a School of Nursing at Upstate. He recognized the need for more trained nurses in Central New York and made the case for establishing a training program at Upstate to meet this need.
Jake and Cookie traveled to Iran as ambassadors for United States Agency for International Development (USAID). While there they helped establish a new hospital in Shiraz; Jake was focused on staffing the hospital while Cookie examined the possibility of opening up a medical college in conjunction with the patient care facilities.
Elizabeth Blackwell Street was named to honor the first woman to earn an M.D. in the United States. Blackwell was a graduate of Geneva Medical College, a predecessor of Upstate Medical Center. The original street was only a campus road, but its modern iteration appears on Syracuse city maps and the appropriately named Jacobsen Hall is located at 175 Elizabeth Blackwell Street.
The 350-bed University Hospital facility had been under construction since the ground breaking in 1961. The cornerstone was laid in 1962, but the hospital was not completed until 1965. The project was realized using both Federal and State funds and was the crowning achievement of Jake’s Presidency.
After creating the first Student Health Services department at Upstate, Cookie saw the need for similar services for employees and established the Employee Health Service to meet that need.
Despite the option to continue working on a year by year basis, Jake chose to retire in 1967 due to age.
As Executive Secretary of the Hospital Review and Planning Council of Central New York Jake oversaw expansion and development of hospital, nursing home, and other patient care facilities for the region.
Cookie took a leave of absence from her role as Director of Student and Employee Health Services to pursue a residency in psychiatry because she felt doctors should have formal training in counseling.
Cookie returned to the staff of Upstate Medical Center as an Assistant Attending Physician in the Psychiatry department. She would advance to Associate Attending Psychiatrist the following year.
Cookie was asked to head this service, which interfaces between psychiatry and all the other clinical services at University Hospital, to improve the effectiveness of patient care. She also served on the Psychiatry Committee of the Cancer and Lukemia Group B (CALGB) Cancer Research Group.
Jake passed away at his home in Cazenovia, NY after a brief illness.
SUNY Upstate established the Carlyle F. Jacobsen Memorial Lecture Series on Higher Brain Function in 1985 to honor its first president. The first lecture was held on Founders Day as part of the inauguration of Upstate President Dr. John Bernard Henry.
At the time of her retirement Cookie was a Full Professor of both Medicine and Psychiatry.
Cookie received the Upstate Medical Alumni Associations Distinguished Alumna Award the year she retired from Upstate.
Even after her retirement from Upstate Cookie continued to give back to the community through medicine. She was acknowledged by the Onondaga County Medical Society for her community service.
Senator Nancy Larraine Hoffmann and Oneida County Executive Ray Meier created a task force to deal with the increase in cases of Tuberculosis among prison inmates and how to protect the medical personnel treating them. Cookie was one of the local experts asked to serve on the task force.
Cookie was recognized for her nearly 50 years of dedication to Upstate's patients, students, and community at large. Cookie was instrumental to many programs at Upstate during a period of rapid growth and change and her reputation as an educator and as a clinician made her a worthy recipient of this honor.
Cookie was named to the SUNY Alumni Honor Roll in 1999. She was nominated by Upstate as an alumna whose contributions to her alma mater deserved to be recognized across the SUNY system.
The Upstate Medical Alumni Foundation established the fellowship to provide financial assistance to students seaking experience in the field of consultation liaison psychiatry. Consultation liaison psychiatry evalutates abnormal reactions to medical illness, provides psychiatric care to the patient, and liaises with the primary care provider. Cookie served as clinical liaison between Upstate's Department of Psychiatry and other hospital departments.
Cookie passed away at her home in Cazenovia, NY; she was 94.
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