A tireless advocate for instruction in swimming and life saving and author of a textbook, "Life Guard Training," WaIter Jeff was athletic director for the Knights of Columbus, 1947-65, water safety director of the Utica Chapter of the American Red Cross, 1949-79, and aquatic director at Utica College, 1965-79.

Born in West Utica in January 1914, he graduated from Holy Trinity Grammar School and Utica Free Academy. A bowling and track star at UFA, Jeff turned his attention to water safety because he remembered a lot of drownings in the barge canal, many of them friends, and vowed that, once he was in a position to do something about it, he would. He was the first life guard at Buckley and Addison Miller pools in 1939 and by the time his book was published in 1964, he had taught 10,000 people to swim and had qualified 2,000 life guards.

Jeff coached basketball and baseball at Utica Catholic Academy from 1943- 47, and basketball, soccer, tennis, and cross-country on a part time basis at Utica College from 1956-65. He then became full time aquatic director at UC, where he was the principal designer of the new swimming pool. Organizer and coach of the Utica Swim Club for 18 years, Jeff developed the first men's and women's competitive swim teams at Utica College.

He officiated high school and college swim meets as well as basketball games and track meets and, in 1959, was a finish line judge and diving judge at the Pan American Games in Chicago. Walter Jeff’s vow to "do something about it" was not taken lightly.