Jackie Ivers Metzger

It’s funny where life takes you when you don’t have a master plan. When I married Barry, my high school sweetheart, he was a law student and I worked as a secretary to support us. We were strongly influenced by John Kennedy, Martin Luther King and the war in Viet Nam and wanted to do something meaningful with our life. At first we thought we would move to Washington DC and be part of the US government or a DC public practice law firm. But instead, we agreed to go to Sri Lanka (then Ceylon) under the auspices of the Ford Foundation for Barry to work at the professional law college. Though we spent only two years there, the experience was life changing. Sri Lanka is a beautiful country with wonderful people and a rich culture. During our years there, the country suffered a student rebellion and a near overthrow of the government. In many ways, it has not recovered from those times. Upon returning to Fort Lee, NJ, Barry continued with Foundation work and I had our first child. He traveled to Asia a great deal for long periods. It seems strange today when I remember how little we spoke when he traveled as he could only phone from a post office and only with a prior reservation. When Foundation funds began to dry up, Barry joined Coudert Brothers, an international law firm, and we agreed to move to Hong Kong. We spent almost 9 years there during an incredible period of growth in the region. Hong Kong was a developing country in 1976. During those years, I returned to work managing a Chinese antique store and doing some conference organizing. I also taught Jewish Sunday School, worked for Weight Watchers and volunteered many hours to school and scouts for the kids. Our daughter was born in Hong Kong.

At the end of the 8th year, Barry began to see a new opportunity “Down Under” and suggested to his firm that we move to Sydney Australia. I was becoming quite an expert at getting a family networked into a new community. We spent 5 years in Sydney and almost didn’t leave. Raising a family in a wonderful, family oriented community was a delight. The weather, people and lifestyle are a hard combination to find elsewhere. In Australia I began the career I now have which is international tax preparation. I joined the Internal Revenue Service international division. They had 12 offices around the world and one was in Sydney. I mostly stayed in Sydney dispensing US tax information and treaty interpretation from the office. But I occasionally traveled to other parts of Australia to provide assistance. In 1989 after 5 years in Sydney, we were enticed to move on to London England. Once again, I packed the kids and the dog off to another location. The poor dog had already spent 6 months quarantine in Hong Kong and 7 months in Hawaii and 2 months in Australia and he was now to have another 6 months in England. What a price he paid to be in our family! He died at age 16 in England. The next dog is now aged 13 and has continued the travel tradition.

After England we moved on to Manila where Barry joined the Asian Development Bank as their General Counsel. I continued with the IRS working in Manila and traveling in the region to Japan, Taiwan and Singapore. We returned to the US 5 years ago and are now living in Manhattan. I have my own international tax preparation business specializing in international students and business people as well as US citizens living abroad. Barry is still with Coudert Brothers in their New York office. However, he recently spent 10 months managing their Tokyo office while I remained in New York. Our kids were schooled in several different systems, but both graduated from the American School in London and came to the US for college. They are nice people. Our son lives in Stamford and works for the Do-It-Yourself Cable TV network. He is married to a German woman he met 6 years ago while working in Dusseldorf for Nickelodean TV and they have a son.

Our daughter just started grad school at Simmons College in Library Science. She recently married a man from Canada. We are loving being in New York. Of all the cities I’ve lived in, it’s the best! My e-mail address is JMMetzgers@cs.com