Funeral services for Donald Elton Jacobson, 96, of Albert Lea will be at 10 a.m. Tuesday at First Lutheran Church in Albert Lea. The Rev. John Holt will officiate. Visitation will be from 5 to 7 p.m. today at Bonnerup Funeral Service and one hour prior to the service at the church.

Interment will be in Graceland Cemetery. Military honors will be accorded by the Albert Lea area veterans groups.

Donald died Saturday, April 12, 2014, at Good Samaritan Society of Albert Lea.

Donald was born Sept. 30, 1917, in Albert Lea, the son of Carl S. and Julia (Wangen) Jacobson. After graduating from Albert Lea High School in 1936, Don attended Cornell University Hotel School in Ithaca, N.Y. He then went to the US Naval Hospital Corps. School in Farragut, Idaho, and was a medic in Bremerton, Wash. during World War ll, from 1943 until 1945.

After the Navy, Don joined his father in the management of the Hotel Albert, for many years a gathering place for Albert Leans and visitors to Albert Lea. Don was instrumental in adding the Colonel Lounge to the hotel in 1954. Don took pride in the family hospitality business and had wonderful stories to tell of celebrities who stopped by the hotel and its popular Spanish dining room from the 1940s until it was sold to Lea College in 1965.

He and Babe traveled widely, from their 1940 honeymoon at Rainy Lake to an Alaskan cruise, Europe and Scandinavia. Don was a member of the Golden K Kiwanis, Masonic Lodge, Eagles, Albert Lea American Legion and the Minnesota Hotel Association. He also served on the board of Peoples Savings and Loan. He was baptized, confirmed and married in First Lutheran Church in Albert Lea.

Don enjoyed a good game of golf at the Albert Lea Country Club and had a hole in one at Madden’s Resort in Brainerd.

Don is survived by his son, Thomas Jacobson of Albert Lea; daughter, Virginia Jacobson and granddaughter, Elizabeth Jacobson of Minneapolis.

He was preceded in death by his parents, Carl S. and Julia Jacobson; loving wife and partner in laughter and life of 52 years, Glenna “Babe” (Brundin) Jacobson and friend, Harriet Kaufman.

The family wishes to thank the staff at Good Samaritan Society for their care of Don.

In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to First Lutheran Church in Albert Lea.