[5][6] He graduated from Highline High School in 1952[7] and started a construction company with a single truck in 1957, the same year that he married his wife Donna.

The couple worked to develop a privately owned asphalt and construction business, M. A. Segale Inc., which grew into a major regional contractor and was sold for $60 million in 1998 to Irish concern CRH plc, for integration into its Oldcastle Materials unit.

[10] Some of these contributions were to elected officials who worked to secure state legislative earmarks for roads in a privately owned development proposed by a Segale company.

However, Segale gave them time to come up with the money for rent, and Arakawa and the other developers subsequently renamed the Donkey Kong player character to Mario, who was previously known as Jumpman.

Sheff's story of the naming of Mario later appeared in Steven L. Kent's The Ultimate History of Video Games in 2001, and thereafter spread widely on the internet.