Jacobs was the honoree at the Cooke Center for Learning and Development on April 27, 2009, where he received the Cooke's Founders Award.

The Founders Award for outstanding contribution to the American Theater will go to Edward Colton, the theater lawyer.

In the same year the American Society of Mechanical Engineers gave him its Founders Award.

He served on numerous executive boards and won several citizenship awards, including the 1990 Founders Award from the St. Jude's Hospital Foundation.

In April 2013, he was awarded the prestigious Founders Award at The Asian Awards.

In 2002 he was given the Founders Award, a lifetime achievement award and the highest honor given by the Louisville Historical League.

In 1983 she was the first recipient of the prestigious Founders Award of the AIChE.

In 1998, he was awarded the Founders Award by the American Society for Gravitational and Space Biology.

Finally, the Founders Award is given to the best architectural history article published in the Society journal.

In 2008 he was selected by NAE for the Founders Award.