Longtime faculty member John Jacobs, M.D., a professor in the Department of Otolaryngology - Head and Neck Surgery, died on Monday, March 20, 2017. He was 67.

Dr. Jacobs received his medical degree from Northwestern University School of Medicine, Chicago, in 1975, following undergraduate training in biomedical engineering there.

Dr. Jacobs was an active research educator and clinician, seeing patients at Wayne State University Physician Group clinics in Rochester and Southfield, and at the Barbara Ann Karmanos Cancer Institute's Wertz Clinic in Detroit.

He also directed the School of Medicine's Head and Neck Oncology Fellowship program. He was a member of the Barbara Ann Karmanos Cancer Institute, since 1999, and an adjunct professor of the Department of Radiation Oncology, since 1995.

He joined the Department of Otolaryngology in 1980 after completing his residency in Otolaryngology at Barnes Hospital, Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.

Dr. Jacobs' clinical interest was in Surgical Oncology, and he had extensive experience in the combined modality management of the cancer patient, including head and neck cancer, salivary gland cancer and thyroid cancer. He was past chairman of the surgery committee and head and neck surgical committee of the Radiation Therapy Oncology Group. He served as trial chair for many clinical trials involving therapy and rehabilitation of the cancer patient, and had been a funded investigator of the National Institutes of Health. He published extensively, and was routinely invited to lecture nationally and internationally.

He was a member of the American Medical Association, Michigan State Medical Society, Michigan Otolaryngological Society, American Academy of Facial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, American Academy of Otolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery and the American College of Surgeons.

He was named to Styleline Magazine's Best Doctors in America lists in 2009, 2013 and 2014, the Detroit Super Doctors list in 2014, and Hour Detroit's Top Docs lists, in 2008 and 2009. He was an invited member of the Best Doctors InterConsultation Group, in 2010.

Funeral arrangements and a memorial are pending, and will be announced at a later date.