Aug. 14, 1937 – Feb. 20, 2017
Donald Shoemaker died Feb. 20, 2017, at his home in San Juan Capistrano after a four-year illness.
Don was born Aug. 4, 1937, in New Castle, Penn., to Wendell and Doris Shoemaker.
In 1971, he formed Shoemaker Films, a production company specializing in sports films and commercials. His camera work on Olympic games won him an Emmy. In 1972, Shoemaker was on the site of the attack at the Munich Olympics where 11 Israeli team members and a German police officer were killed. Shoemaker helped ABC network feed that story to the world.
Other highlights of his long career include cameraman for 10 Monaco Grand Prix’s “Race Across America,”a 10-day 3,000-mile bicycle race. He was also a cameraman and editor on Bruce Brown’s feature film “On Any Sunday,” and he filmed many Baja, Mexico, 500 and 1000 race events.
He is survived by his wife of 57 years, Emily Glenn Shoemaker; his son Mark and daughter-in-law Jan Brockman Shoemaker; and three grand children, Brock, Pearl and Bailey, all of Laguna Beach.
Shoemaker lived a full and wonderful life. His work and pleasure trips took him to six of the seven continents. He loved his work, family, automobiles, auto racing of all kinds, and golf.
Shoemaker was loved and will be remembered for his soft-spoken kindness, strength and creativity. He left us too soon.
We love and honor you, “Pops”.
