The Strange Case of Jakub Jan Janecka
Jakub’s one friend on Facebook.
And, although we send our deepest condolences to the family and friends of Jakub Janecka, we believe that this story is worth investigating in the interest of preventing future suicides. With that in mind, anyone upset by this incident should talk to Gannett’s Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS).
Janecka left fairly little trace of himself on the internet, but the clues we have are somewhat confuddling. Unless there is another Jakub J. Janecka with the middle name Jan, a search of his Facebook profile at left shows his one solitary friend, Jane Goldschmidt. She was apparently a classmate of his at DC’s Catholic University of America, the network to which he was a member. Other findings thicken the plot, such as this citation:
As this screengrab from an academic journal’s search engine shows, Janecka was published at Cornell under Professor Leonard Lion of the Civil and Environmental Engineering Department.
It seems that Jakub did not up and leave Ithaca in 1998 — he probably enrolled as a grad student in Civil and Environmental Engineering, as the picture above shows with the citation of an article he published under Professor Leonard W. Lion. At some point between 2002 and 2008, probably after he received his Ph.D., he moved to DC to serve in some capacity at the Catholic University of America, perhaps as a post-doc? It is probably too soon to indulge our morbid curiosities, though, but the case is indeed very strange.
UPDATE: Professor Lion worked with his brother Jan, who is also an alum. A fairly comprehensive obituary was published in the Scranton Times Tribune:
Jakub J. Janecka of the Hideout, Lake Ariel, died Wednesday in Cornell, N.Y.
Born in Uherske Hradiste, Czech Republic, son of Lubomir and Ludmila Zaleskova Janecka, Lake Ariel, he was a graduate of Honesdale High School and received a Bachelor of Science in biology from Cornell University and a master’s degree in theology from the University of Scranton. This past spring, he earned a master’s degree in biology from Catholic University. He attended St. Thomas Church, Lake Ariel.
Also surviving are a sister, Dr. Ludmila Kissi, Virginia; a brother, Dr. Jan Janecka, College Station, Texas; and two nieces.
Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated on Tuesday at 10 a.m. in St. Thomas More Church, 105 Gravity Road, Lake Ariel.
The family will receive friends Tuesday, 9:15 to 10 in the church narthex. Cremation will follow in Lake Region Crematory, Lake Ariel. For online condolences, visit www.jameswilsonfuneralhome.com.
Even though we neglected to visit the funeral home’s Web site, we still send our online condolences.
October 12th, 2008 at 11:29 am
[...] The Strange Case of Jakub Jan Janecka [...]
October 13th, 2008 at 8:51 am
Suggest you get your “facts” together. Read today, the Jakub J. Janecka’s PA newspaper obituary– which is now linked to this site–He has a brother, Jan, who might be the person who would have “probably enrolled as grad student” in Civil Engineering at Cornell–not Jakub.
October 13th, 2008 at 8:58 am
Re: Jakub J. Janecka
The PA obituary is in the Scranton Times…you can Google it with the name: Jakub J. Janecka…Oct. 12, 2008..They mistakenly call Ithaca “Cornell, NY”….
October 15th, 2008 at 8:27 am
Jakub was one of my closest friends in high school. He was a brilliant student, bringing a much needed international view to a backwards, rural Pennsylvania public school.
He was always one of those people that kept appearing in random thoughts, a name from the past to try to hunt down. I always pictured him doing big things.
I learned of his untimely death today, too late to attend his service. I am sick over it.
My thoughts are with his family. He will be missed by many.