Jacob Elijah “Jake” Birenbach died on Monday, October 12, 2026 in Boston as the result of an incident his family describes only as sudden. He was 29.
He was born at Beverly Hospital on December 17, 1996 to Michael E. Birenbach and Jessica E. (Cooper) Birenbach and grew up in the Boston area, around Raleigh and Chapel Hill, N.C., and in San Jose, Calif., graduating from Burlington High School in Vermont in 2015. His family remembers a boy who grabbed the microphone at a school play at 6 and danced and sang until someone took it back, who later played Romeo with the American Youth Shakespeare Company and a scene-stealing crab in the musical “Just So” opposite his father’s elephant; a reader, gamer, filmmaker, Lego builder and artist with a serious eye for drawing. His restaurant colleagues wrote that whatever role he held, he brought his energy, his personality and his heart to every table.
His mother, Jessica, died before him. He leaves his father and stepmother, Michael and Jen Birenbach; his sister, Amanda Birenbach of Salem; his grandparents, Michael J. Birenbach and Jane Corwin of Getzville, N.Y., Jennifer and Charles Howard of Pittsfield, Vt., and Robert and Dona Abel of West Redding, Conn.; his great-grandfather, Fred Wall of Stockbridge, Vt.; and a large extended family in seven states.
A celebration of his life is Saturday, November 7 at 11 a.m. at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Greater Lynn, 101 Forest Avenue, Swampscott, with a reception after. Arrangements are by the Murphy Funeral Home, Salem. The family suggests donations to Hope for the Warriors.
Compiled from information published by Murphy Funeral Home. Photograph courtesy of the family via Murphy Funeral Home. This is our own summary, not the family’s obituary; read the full obituary and leave a condolence at the funeral home’s page on Legacy.com. Corrections: we will fix any error promptly.
