Class: 1964
Deceased: July 1, 1975
Jairus Lincoln died at his home in Somerville, MA in July 1975, a few months after a third major operation failed to stop a virulent brain tumor. He was 34 years old. The origins of his medical problem are not completely known, nor will they likely ever be. Jairus left Carleton near the end of his sophomore year, and never re-enrolled in college. “He was too creative,” said his younger brother, Edward.
“He didn’t see the relevancy of college courses to what he was interested in doing.” Even without a degree, Jairus was soon moving easily through the elite New England academic community, finding ways to harness his talents to a bewildering array of technical and artistic projects. He started by moving to Cambridge and returning to a long-held interest in acoustics.
He provided technical ideas to the founders of KHL Corp. and Acoustic Research Inc. as they developed hi-fi receivers and speakers. He experimented with white sound as a dental analgesic. He was hired by the MIT film department to work with Richard Leacock and Ed Pincus to develop Super 8 sound technology. And he performed the sound mixing and editing for acclaimed films by Harvard anthropologists John Marshall and Robert Gardner on relatively unknown native cultures in Namibia, the Amazon and New Guinea.
For a period, he worked as a teaching assistant to a photography professor at the Rhode Island School of Design, where his father taught. Jairus also produced two short self-financed films of his own, one about a group of his friends and their summer on the Cape Cod shore, and the other an abstract, expressionist work focused entirely on visual impressions.
Around 1967, however, Jairus suffered a major seizure, which eventually led to an exploratory cranial operation, and discovery and partial removal of a slow-growing tumor. Jairus recuperated slowly at his parents’ home, and even while periodically receiving radiation and chemotherapy, was eventually able to resume wide-ranging projects. But headaches and nausea reappeared, and he required another brain operation in 1970. Doctors at Mass General could never pin down the tumor’s origin.
Friends had introduced him to a German woman, Gisela White, and they married in 1970. She helped him recover from the second operation. Gisela remembers that even with his deteriorating situation, Jairus “never pitied himself, had a great many dear friends, and always found something to interest himself.”
She described Jairus’ final years: “…..He developed an interest in computer graphics, which was just emerging in the late 60s and early 70s. He had his own computer and printer. We also worked jointly as freelancers for a German science magazine and did research on a book about Viet Nam with a German journalist.
We spent two summers in Germany, which were very restful and happy, and my family loved him. Another summer (1973) was full of Watergate hearings. He was fascinated.
“Jairus always wanted a house and in 1974 we bought a fixer-upper in Somerville. We very much enjoyed planning various construction projects. Shortly after moving in, however, the headaches returned and his health started to decline again. His third operation came in early 1975. After that his recuperation was limited and slow, and he died at home on July 30, 1975. His last words were ‘Fair Play for Cuba.’”
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Jairus Lincoln died at his home in Somerville, MA in July 1975, a few months after a third major operation failed to stop a virulent brain tumor. He was 34 years old. The origins of his medical problem are not completely known, nor will they likely ever be. Jairus left Carleton near the end of his sophomore year, and never re-enrolled in college. “He was too creative,” said his younger brother, Edward. “He didn’t see the relevancy of college courses to what he was interested in doing.” Even without a degree, Jairus was soon moving easily through the elite New England academic community, finding ways to harness his talents to a bewildering array of technical and artistic projects. He started by moving to Cambridge and returning to a long-held interest in acoustics. He provided technical ideas to the founders of KHL Corp. and Acoustic Research Inc. as they developed hi-fi receivers and speakers. He experimented with white sound as a dental analgesic. He was hired by the MIT film department to work with Richard Leacock and Ed Pincus to develop Super 8 sound technology. And he performed the sound mixing and editing for acclaimed films by Harvard anthropologists John Marshall and Robert Gardner on relatively unknown native cultures in Namibia, the Amazon and New Guinea. For a period, he worked as a teaching assistant to a photography professor at the Rhode Island School of Design, where his father taught. Jairus also produced two short self-financed films of his own, one about a group of his friends and their summer on the Cape Cod shore, and the other an abstract, expressionist work focused entirely on visual impressions. Around 1967, however, Jairus suffered a major seizure, which eventually led to an exploratory cranial operation, and discovery and partial removal of a slow-growing tumor. Jairus recuperated slowly at his parents’ home, and even while periodically receiving radiation and chemotherapy, was eventually able to resume wide-ranging projects. But headaches and nausea reappeared, and he required another brain operation in 1970. Doctors at Mass General could never pin down the tumor’s origin. Friends had introduced him to a German woman, Gisela White, and they married in 1970. She helped him recover from the second operation. Gisela remembers that even with his deteriorating situation, Jairus “never pitied himself, had a great many dear friends, and always found something to interest himself.” She described Jairus’ final years: “…..He developed an interest in computer graphics, which was just emerging in the late 60s and early 70s. He had his own computer and printer. We also worked jointly as freelancers for a German science magazine and did research on a book about Viet Nam with a German journalist. We spent two summers in Germany, which were very restful and happy, and my family loved him. Another summer (1973) was full of Watergate hearings. He was fascinated. “Jairus always wanted a house and in 1974 we bought a fixer-upper in Somerville. We very much enjoyed planning various construction projects. Shortly after moving in, however, the headaches returned and his health started to decline again. His third operation came in early 1975. After that his recuperation was limited and slow, and he died at home on July 30, 1975. His last words were ‘Fair Play for Cuba.’"