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Steven "Jake" Jacoby was a vice president and chief operating officer of the second largest wireless communications company in the United States. He didn't act like it.

"He knew everyone's name. He was everyone's friend. He never shut his office door," said Tim Dietz, spokesman for Virgina-based Metrocall, the company where Jacoby had worked since 1994.

Dietz called Jacoby "the rock of the company," and another co-worker, Chief Financial Officer Vince Kelly, said, "the fact that Metrocall's technical operating network continued to function and provide critical communications during this horrific event was a tribute to Jake."

Jacoby, 43, was on Flight 77 on his way to a wireless communications conference in Los Angeles.

Profile courtesy of THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE.