Sept. 16--Guy Jacobucci was a former chef who called himself "Cookie Monster" on his LinkedIn page and was known for the parties he hosted for friends and family at his Palatine area home.
On Sunday afternoon, Jacobucci called 911 around 4 p.m. saying he had been stung by a bee. "He had called saying he was having a reaction from a bee sting," said Sophia Ansari, a spokeswoman for the Cook County Sheriff's Office. "His injuries were swelling to the tongue and throat."
Jacobucci, 49, was pronounced dead at his home at 5:22 p.m., according to the Cook County medical examiner's office. An autopsy determined Jacobucci died of an anaphylactic reaction to a bee sting, the office said.
"He was a beloved figure here," said Steven Handmaker, one of his supervisors at Assurance, headquartered in northwest suburban Schaumburg. "You don't just sort of know Guy. When you know him, he is immediately in your life and your family, and that's true of his clients as well."
Jacobucci was senior vice president who worked as an insurance and risk management adviser. He "helped businesses get better" and specialized in property and casualty area, Handmaker said. A "sharp businessman," he was one of Assurance's top salespeople.
He was a former chef who was passionate about cooking, often throwing parties at his home in the 2000 block of Crestwood Drive, and loved to bring homemade cookies to the office, especially around the holidays.
"You knew when you were with him that fun would follow because that's just the kind of environment he created everywhere he went," Handmaker said. "He threw parties every year for friends and his family. Annual parties that people built summers around."
Jacobucci started with Assurance about eight years ago and held a marketing degree from Northern Illinois University.
"He didn't have many business relationships that didn't automatically become personal relationships because that's the kind of person he was," Handmaker said. "There was only personal with Guy.
"That's why the shock and quite frankly the sadness here in this organization is very, very profound," he said. "How does this happen? It's really one of those moments that you really stop and you really have to believe if this would happen like this, as the saying goes: 'Tomorrow is promised to no one.' But boy, it takes this to really make you stop."
Julia Gore helped Jacobucci open Savoia T'go, a restaurant in Palatine, around 2003. "It was his lifelong dream," she said. "He was a chef and owner."
He grew up in Chicago Heights and graduated from Marian Catholic High School, said Gore, whose grandparents opened the original Savoia in Chicago Heights.
He started in business, went to "chef's school" but went back to business after his restaurant closed, Gore said. "He made fantastic lasagna," she said. "But everything he cooked was delicious."
"He was a great chef and a super kind man,'' Gore said. "(He) had a zest for life."
