Irwin Jacobs Minnesota & wife Alexandria Jacobs: How couple died
Irwin Jacobs Minnesota & wife Alexandria Jacobs were found dead Wednesday morning at Irwin Jacobs home in Orono.
Alexandra Jacobs had reportedly been battling health issues. Irwin Jacobs was 77 years old.
How Irwin Jacobs Minnesota & wife Alexandria Jacobs died:
The couple was found in bed with a handgun. According to a family friend, Jacobs and his wife Alexandra were found dead at their home at 1700 Shoreline Drive.
A statement from the Hennepin County Sheriff’s office confirmed the deaths of a male and a female.
According to a news release from the Hennepin County Sheriff’s office, the bodies were found after dispatch received a call at 8:31 a.m. Wednesday morning. Police say there is “no risk to the public.”
Irwin and Alexandra Jacobs are listed as taxpayers on their Orono home, which sits on a 20-acre site and has an assessed value of $6.3 million according to Hennepin County property tax records.
Orono police are investigating the Irwin Jacobs deaths.
Jacobs was known in the 1970s and 1980s as a corporate raider and was sometimes referred to as “Irv the Liquidator.”
In 1975 Jacobs acquired the then-struggling Grain Belt beer company. Jacobs sold the brands to the Wisconsin-based G. Heileman Brewing crew and auctioned off the equipment. The city of Minneapolis bought the brewery from Jacobs in the late 1980s; the historic property was later redeveloped by Minneapolis-based Ryan Companies.
Jacobs founded and led Minneapolis-based Genmar Holdings Inc., which was once the largest manufacturer of boats in the U.S. When the Great Recession hit, the company filed Chapter 11 reorganization bankruptcy in 2009. However, it ultimately became a Chapter 7 liquidation of the company. Many of Genmar’s brands were sold off to a California-based private equity firm.
Jacobs was founder, president and CEO of Hopkins-based Jacobs Trading Co., a buyer and seller of closeout retail inventories. The company’s roots went back to the 1960s when Jacobs got his start in the closeout business. In 2009, the company relocated and expanded to a 300,000 square foot office and warehouse facility in Hopkins.