When Anna and I visited his home yesterday, we found him lying in the casket with a serene and gentle smile on his face.
Every time someone talked about Kolenchery, he or she would equate the place to Synthite industries and MOSC Medical College, of which Mr Jacob was the founder of the first and one of the main overs of the second to convert the Malankara Orthodox Medical Mission Hospital to a Medical College about twenty years ago.
Most of what I heard about Mr Jacob was form his son Mr Aju Jacob and some faculty in MOSC Medical College. Let me share five outstanding qualities of this noble human being.
1. Builder of institutions
It was Mr Jacob who offered all the financial support to modernise the Primary Health Centre, and the Government high school at Kadayirip. He was the one who loaned the capital for the building the Medical college campus of the MOSC Medical mission. He was actively involved in fostering the St Peter's school, St Peter's college, and the Kochi international Air port. The CVJacob foundation is a solace to many, who suffer from kidney diseases or other chronic illnesses by the generous grant given for hospital stay and treatment.
2. Creating new industries
Apart from Synthite industry which is a leading spice exporter in the world, he promoted building homes, hotels, resorts, kitchen treasures, etc. Having turned away from being a a civil contractor, he focussed on creating facilities and services for people. His was a model of diversification to maintain the momentum of growth of his industry to create pace for his family to be involved in creating fulfilling occupations to lead the way in new frontiers of opportunities. The Synthite industry empire is one of well known efficiently and charitably run organisations.
3. Socially conscious
Much before the government of india insisted on the corporate sector to offer a percentage of their profit for philanthropic purposes, Mr Jacob was already leading the way in helping people in the margins of society to make a difference in their lives. I recall how one of the employees told me that Mr Jacob knew the staff working in Synthite personally and he reached out to help the families in various ways. While he was in charge of the leadership of the industry, there was no union activities, as he cared to attend to the needs of the employees liberally.
4. Promoting higher education in Kolenchery
Mr Jacob was an ardent supporter of creating higher education opportunities at Kolenchery. There was no English medium school at Kolenchery. That is how St Peter's school, Kadayirip was started. The other institutions such as the medical, engineering, teacher's training, etc developed because of his active support and visionary outlook to education. At one stage he was keen to create a business school of high standard in the town. He having known the value of education in impacting the future of the youth, gave himself to promote these opportunities at Kolenchery. I experienced this in a refreshing way. When the medical students from MOSC wanted to pursue clinical research, which Anna was co-ordinating, it was the Synthite industries who came forward to financially help students to go attend conferences and present papers even in overseas meetings. Mr Aju Jacob was committed to help students to achieve land marks in clinical research.
5. An enthusiast and risk taker
Most industrialists would be protectionists in approach to safeguard the identity of their industry by guarding it and its future course with ultra caution. But the diversity of industries created in his life time, would suggest that he seized the opportunities prudently and moved in different directions to meet a need as well as to lead by example. If he saw an opportunity he grasped it with zeal and commitment. A person who was actively associated with him while building the MOSC Medical College complex told me that he loaned a huge sum of money to build the college premises and personally supervised the construction by visiting the site almost daily. He saw the need and gave himself to address it.
Anna and I have had some association with Mr Aju Jacob and his wife since we joined MOSC nine years ago. He and his wife visited us at the Developmental Paediatrics and Child Neurology on a few occasions to encourage us. His interest to see the department develop into a leading role in Child Development was a significant encouragement. He offered to support t the department by a generous contribution every month, which has gone a long way to sustain the department during a difficult time. This in itself is an example of how late Mr C V Jacob installed in his children the same spirit of social consciousness with which he led the Synthite industries.
Late Mr C V Jacob was a person of vision and virtue who was ahead o this time. He created institutions and opened the doors of opportunities to many people. He enthused his family members to move forward with similar zeal by paying attention to quality and content in whatever they do.
He was more than aspirations in his outlook. He was a noble human being, in whose heart the wellness of others occupied a conscious attention. He transcended industrialists who create an empire to glory in, but as a means to serve people and give them an opportunity to excel in life.
Although I saw him in a meeting from distance only once, the stories and recollections about him have been a frequent subject of conversations in meetings with people, who recall the history of transition of Kolenchery village into a town of some significance and reputation.
Mr Jacob did not just create a successful industry, but gave a ladder for people climb to optimise their skills in the several institutions they work.
His life is an example of dedication, prudent planning and socially conscious action plans!
M.C.Mathew(text and photo)
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