Bob Jeffers Named 2007 Citizen of the Year

Bob Jeffers, who led the community-driven campaign to renovate the football/soccer field and running track at Palisades High, has been named the Palisadian-Post’s Citizen of the Year for 2007. Jeffers and the Community Council-selected Golden Sparkplugs will be honored at the Post’s annual Citizen dinner on Thursday, April 24 in the American Legion Hall. Pacific Palisades resident Jeffers and Brentwood’s Jim Bailey have served as co-chairmen of the $1.7-million makeover at the Stadium by the Sea. The final phase of the work, laying down the blue rubber topcoat and painting lanes on the all-weather track surface, began this week. Construction started after graduation last June, when the natural grass football field was replaced with synthetic sports turf. “In reviewing the nominations, we felt Bob Jeffers was by far the most deserving of this award,’ said Post Publisher Roberta Donohue. ‘In addition to the stadium renovations, Bob’s work with PRIDE has been tireless, as he spearheaded both the Sunset median at Chautauqua and the Marquez Avenue business-block projects.’ Instituted in 1947 by The Palisadian (before its merger with the Palisades Post), the Citizen award honors the man or woman who, in the opinion of an impartial committee of judges, did the most to benefit the community of Pacific Palisades the previous year. ‘Bob was adamant that the condition of the track and field was not deserving of this community,’ wrote Greg Wood, Palisades High’s chief business officer. ‘Almost single-handedly, Bob took it upon himself to contact the high school, make a presentation to our Board of Directors and approval for the project. He then worked tirelessly on obtaining the necessary funding and convinced ‘Olympian of the Century’ Carl Lewis to lend his name to the track.’ In their nomination letter, Shari and Russell Wollman wrote: ‘Bob has been our neighbor for eight years and his willingness to dedicate his time and effort to make the Palisades a better place to live is exemplary and merits our community’s appreciation and recognition. His proven track record of community involvement and leadership is truly inspirational.’ Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Arnie Wishnick noted that ‘Bob kept a close eye on the day-to-day operations, from groundbreaking to completion. And when he wasn’t there he was out fundraising.’ Jeffers grew up in Denver and Bethesda, Maryland, and attended Duke University, where he played soccer. After working for large ad agencies in New York City for six years he moved to Los Angeles and earned his master’s degree in film at USC. Now he is a freelance copywriter in entertainment advertising, specializing in writing movie trailers and promotions for TV shows. He and his wife, Karen, live in the El Medio bluffs neighborhood with their two sons: Dylan, a freshman at nearby PaliHi, and Charlie, an eighth-grader at Paul Revere Middle School. As it turned out, Bob’s support of his boys’ athletic endeavors played a role in making the field they’ll now have the opportunity to play on a reality. The field makeover idea came to Jeffers when he and his sons were in San Diego at Karen’s alma mater, Patrick Henry High: ‘I saw that they had one of these turf fields,’ Jeffers told the Post. ‘My boys and I were enthralled with the soft perfect surface. We played some ‘tackle’ football just so we could fall on it. That’s when I thought to myself, ‘Why can’t we do this at Pali?” Six months later, Jeffers heard that Jim Bailey had already begun researching the idea and he jumped in to help. The new stadium field was inaugurated last November 2, when Palisades hosted its homecoming football game against Venice, culminating over two years of fundraising in the community by Jeffers and his team, along with planning and overseeing the construction. ‘It’s been the most rewarding thing in my life after my two sons,’ Jeffers said. ‘I get so much pleasure watching kids play on it. It even seems like they’re putting more energy into morning P.E. This is the kind of facility this school and this community deserve and I’m grateful to all the people who have helped make it possible.’