Jeff MacNelly who was a New York native began his career in 1969 when he dropped out of the University of North Carolina to take a position with a weekly paper in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. He won the Pulitzer Prize for his editorial cartoons in 1972, 1978, and 1985. He won the first Pulitzer Prize after only having been working for the Richmond News Leader in Virginia for only sixteen months. After twelve years, he then joined the Chicago Tribune in 1982. Editorial cartoons were not his only outlet to the public. In 1977, "Shoe" was created about a cranky newspaper editor. He also illustrated the syndicated column of the humorist Dave Barry.

"Jeff was simply the most brilliant political cartoonist of the time," Tribune editor Howard A. Tyner said. "No one had an eye and a sense of humor like his. And he was as funny personally as he was in print."

Source: Associated Press, 2000.