Jeff Shoemaker is a Wellshire neighborhood icon: Kenny Be's Hip Tip

Neighborhood Icon #9 of 76: Wellshire.

This icon pictured above was inspired by the signage of a defunct restaurant housed in the clubhouse of a bankrupt country club from which the neighborhood got its name. It's a fitting homage to the regenerative character of Wellshire. This is a neighborhood where residents can turn virtual cesspools back into places of recreational pride. Meet Jeff Shoemaker...

Wellshire neighborhood icon Jeff Shoemaker.

Jeff Shoemaker is Executive Director of the Greenway Foundation, the organization that has led efforts to reclaim and conserve the riparian environment of the South Platte River and its tributaries. The Greenway Foundation was started in 1974 by Jeff's father, Joe Shoemaker, and the two men have helped transform the South Platte River from an open sewer lined with garbage to a gurgling greenbelt of enhanced recreational, ecological and economic value.

As a child, Jeff attended Slavens Elementary School, located in the heart of the Wellshire neighborhood. He graduated from Thomas Jefferson High and earned a music degree from the University of Colorado. He was working as a college band leader in Colorado Springs when his dad called him back home to help with Greenway in 1982.

Since then, he has also served as a Colorado State Representative (from 1987-1992), been appointed to the State Board of Agriculture by Governor Bill Owens (1999-2005), and currently heads the Foundation for Colorado State Parks.

In his spare time, Jeff "challenges" himself with golfing, jogging, biking and performing in triathlons. When sitting, Jeff enjoys playing the piano, where he can use music as a form of self-expression and a means for self-renewal. It's the Wellshire way.

More from our Kenny Be/Comics archive: "Natasha Léger is an Indian Creek neighborhood icon: Kenny Be's Hip Tip."