In 1998, Jeff had the opportunity to visit the Galapagos Islands as part of his Tropical Ecology class through Furman University. While in the Galapagos, the crew of the boat thought he was not like the other students. Jeff was enthusiastic ALL the time and could not wait to go from island to island to see all the animals. Jeff even went on the night dive for lobsters without fear of sharks or anything else lurking in the deep. The crew found out his name was Jeff and called him Heff. Soon, however, that moved to Jefe (pronounced Hef-a) which in Spanish means 'the boss'. Upon returning to Furman in the spring, the students got word of this name and it became his new name. All through Furman people knew this guy named 'El Jefe'. In fact, when his wife first met him at Furman, she thought his name really was Jefe!
With help of the Field Zoology class, Jefe became Jefe the Herp Hunter. You see, Steve Irwin was quite popular at the time and he was Steve the Crocodile Hunter. Well, the Field Zoology class was in essence a Mammalogy and Herpetology class. (Herpetology being the study of reptiles and amphibians and 'herp' being the descriptive term of those two groups.)
Jeff's enthusiasm for herps was outstanding. His professor once remarked he was his best student in 20 years! His classmates soon went beyond calling him Jefe and in the Biology Department he became El Jefe the Herp Hunter. In fact, the Field Zoology shirt for that year mentioned Jefe. The quote went:
Animal Planet may have Steve,
but we have
Jefe the Herp Hunter
After he graduated in 1995, the name still stuck. At that time, his now wife was an upcoming junior. During her senior year--2 years later--she still met people who had heard of the famous El Jefe. In fact, in a meeting with her English professor, his wife said she was dating a Furman student who graduated in 95. She said his name was Jeff but some people called him Jefe. Upon hearing that, her teacher exclaimed, "Isn't that the kid who deals with all the snakes in the Bio Department?"
To this day, Furman Alumni and Jeff's old friend still call him Jefe.
In Paul Harvey's words.....and now you know the rest of the story.
