Max Jacobson (1941 - currently alive and well) was born in Houston, raised in Denver, and received his first degrees in engineering from Boulder and Berkeley. After a couple of years working as an engineer, he returned to Berkeley to study architecture, receiving a PhD in architecture in 1975. During this period he contributed as a co-author to the book "A Pattern Language", 1977. A licensed architect in California, he co-founded the Berkeley architectural firm JSWD in 1975 (jswdarch.com), and with his partners wrote "The Good House" (1990), and "Patterns of Home" (2005). His most recent book is "Invitation to Architecture", available in April, 2014, co-written with Shelley Brock. Married to Helen Degenhardt, practicing architecture for 35 years with his partners, co-authoring all his publications, learning from his architecture students in community college, he really does nothing on his own!