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Leah Ann Jacobs was born in 1929.  Her paternal grandparents immigrated to the United States from Lithuania in the early 1890’s and settled in Springfield, Massachusetts.  Her maternal grandparents also came at that same time from Vilna in Russia and settled in Northampton, Massachusetts.

Leah met Harold Taub, a native Albanian and U.S. Navy veteran, at the age of 18 while she was attending Russell Sage College in Troy. They married seven months later in August, 1947, and she accompanied him to SUNY Farmingdale where he earned an Associate Degree in Heating, Air Conditioning, and Refrigeration.

Upon returning to this area in 1949, they found an apartment in Delmar and have lived there ever since.  Their three daughters – Susan, Joan and Julie – are all graduates of BCHS.

Harold established Taub Heating and Plumbing in 1951 and created a successful business until his retirement in 1990.   He died in 2006.

In 1976 Leah took a job with the New York State Department of Health, Division of Laboratories and Research, and worked there as a secretary until her retirement in 1993.   

She is a lifelong member of Temple Israel in Albany, a piano student of Michael Clement of Niskayuna,  and is also a prolific writer of family memorabilia, essays on daily living and accounts of her travels. In 2020 she compiled many of her stories into a book called Seasons of Life. She has four grandchildren and ten great-grandchildren.

At age 96 she continues to play the piano and write essays, poems, and song parodies that she shares with family and friends.      

Editor’s Note: As a writer, Leah asked that she be able to write her own biography for this page, a request we happily obliged. We hope you enjoy hearing her stories and learning her history as much as we did.

Family Photos