Ellis
A. Jacobson, age 72, passed away peacefully at home with his family
in Montpelier, Vt., on July 19, 2025, after a brief, fierce battle
with pancreatic cancer. Ellis was born in Portland, Maine, on August
28, 1952, to Nellie (Levin) and Myer Jacobson.
Ellis
was an artist, sculptor, mask maker, educator, curator, director,
writer, actor, clown, comic and musician. His career in the arts
began when he won the Best Actor award for the Children’s Theater
of Maine in 1966, and from there he was hooked. He went on to get his
bachelor of the arts in theater and his teacher’s certification at
Goddard College in Plainfield, Vt. In the late 1960s and early ’70s,
he performed with Blackbird Theater, Two Penney Circus, and Bread and
Puppet Theater. Throughout the ’70s and ’80s he wrote and
performed numerous comedy shows with Barney Carlson; he juggled with
Peter Youngbaer as Mister Blister and Fatman; and he created his own
mask theater company, the Regular Theater. He toured to Oaxaca,
Mexico, with Dragon Dance Theater in 1994, where he created a giant
mask in the town square, which was used in their performance at Monte
Alban. His papier-mâché masks were also featured in a performance
by the New York City Opera and the Metropolitan Opera in Brooklyn in
the 1990s.
In
the 2000s he turned his energy to arts education and curation. In
2000 his masks were displayed in a one-man show at the University of
Montana. He worked in numerous Vermont schools as a theater teacher,
director and artist-in-residence. He founded and curated the Artpath
Gallery in Burlington, Vt., and served as a trustee for the T.W. Wood
Art Gallery. For the past 10-plus years he has developed, run and
taught afterschool arts programs for elementary-aged children in
central Vermont and most recently his own program, 3 O’Clock Art,
at the Greenway campus in Montpelier. Providing an environment for
his students to be able to play and create freely in whatever medium
and subject matter inspired them was the most important to him, and
he loved his students dearly.
Ellis
loved the coast of Maine, spending time every summer bodysurfing and
eating fried clams with family and friends in Ocean Park. He loved
his chosen home of Cabot, Vt., where he bought his first home while
in college. He lived there until 2023, when he permanently moved to
Montpelier. He loved making people laugh and continued to do so even
in his frequent hospital stays during his last weeks of life,
cracking jokes with each person who walked into the hospital room. He
loved all things and collected many, such as art, coins and antique
toys, but he loved nothing better than the smile on the face of a
child. He loved the extended nontraditional family that he shared
with his partner of 42 years, Marilyn Nasuta, whom he married in
2012. He was a devoted grandfather to Cooper and Nellie Lamb, a
stepfather to Rosemary Leach, and a stepfather-in-law to Ted Lamb. He
is survived by his brother, Alan Jacobson, and sister-in-law Rose of
Miami, Fla.; his nephews, Brian Jacobson of Homestead, Fla., and Mark
Jacobson of Ann Arbor, Mich.; his brother-in-law, Stephen Nasuta, and
sister-in-law Molly Backup of Saint Albans, Vt.; his niece, Ditra
Backup, of Washington, D.C.; as well as grandnieces, grandnephews and
cousins.
Ellis
was so grateful to everyone who shared their love, support and
medical expertise over the last 10 weeks, including his family, his
friends, his students and their families, and the staff at Greenway
Institute, the University of Vermont Medical Center (especially
Miller 5), Central Vermont Medical Center, Brigham and Women’s
Hospital, Dana Farber Cancer Institute, and Central Vermont Home
Health & Hospice.
A
celebration of life will be held in the fall. Donations can be made
in memory of Ellis to Bread and Puppet Theater in Glover, Vt., or to
Central Vermont Home Health & Hospice in Berlin, Vt. The family
also invites you to share your memories and condolences by visiting
awrfh.com.
This article appears in Aug 6-12, 2025.