If you lived in Bend long enough, it’s likely you might have run into Dave Sheldon.

It could have been on the slopes at Mt. Bachelor, where he taught young people to ski. It may have been at the Pole Pedal Paddle, the event he founded with his wife, Jenny, in 1977, or at the Cascades Theatrical Company, where he took on the role of Don Quixote in a 2006 production of “Man of La Mancha.” At events hosted by the Central Oregon Environmental Center, where he served as a board member, he was the guy keeping the evening rolling with a joke and a song from his band.

On Wednesday, as they mourned his sudden death, friends and family members of the longtime Bend resident said it was hard not to notice Sheldon’s impact on the community he loved.

“He was kind of a hidden hero of Bend,” said Irene Goodnight, a friend who played in a band with Sheldon. “His combination of talent and sensitivity and passion and creativity was totally amazing.”

The 57-year-old was found dead Tuesday morning in his van, parked in a rural area near the North Umpqua River in Douglas County. He commuted a few days each week to his job in the Roseburg area and had apparently parked the van to sleep for the evening rather than commute home after a long day at work. Strong winds toppled a large tree, which crushed the van.

Sheldon, a native of Coos Bay, was a musician and athlete from an early age.

He played several instruments, including the guitar and piano, and loved to sing. In his college days in Ashland, he was a surfer who fell for Jenny, a skiier. She said it didn’t take long for him to figure out that if he wanted to be with her, he’d need to learn to ski.

Sheldon took up the sport and never looked back. After a few years traveling the globe, skiing, biking and surfing, the pair moved to Bend in the mid-1970s. In short order, they became active members of the community — perhaps most notably with their efforts to launch the first Pole Pedal Paddle, a race modeled after an event in Jackson Hole, Wyo., that Jenny had taken part in.

The Sheldons raised three children, now all in their 20s.

For years, Dave Sheldon did creative work for businesses across the country, ranging from technical writing to graphic arts and voice-overs. For the past 18 years, he’d worked as a contractor for Romtec, a Roseburg-based company that designs and builds public restrooms, concession stands, ticket booths, park shelters and other facilities.

“In business, he made many a company look good, sound good, and made their written words read beautifully,” said his brother, Mark Sheldon, with whom he worked at Romtec.

The company’s president, Timothy Bogan, said Sheldon was an “irreplaceable” employee who excelled at marketing work and never had a negative word for his co-workers.

At the company’s holiday party Saturday, he said, Sheldon kept everyone laughing with Christmas carols he’d rewritten to include lyrics about the company — a long-standing tradition.

“Every year he wrote a new one, and this year was no different,” Bogan said. “He got up there and sang with his brother and his niece. He just thrived in that atmosphere.”

Back in Bend, music was a part of Sheldon’s everyday life. He’d often perform for friends at his home or their homes, sometimes alone and sometimes with a band.

Goodnight said she and Sheldon played together at a friend’s birthday party last week and she was looking forward to seeing him Thursday, because she had a suggestion for the band’s ever-changing name: Big Rock.

“Of course he was the big rock — that was his position in the band,” she said.

Sheldon was also known for fighting hard to protect what he believed in. In 2001, he was the chairman of a group called Taxpayers Against the Bridge, which fought against the city’s plans to build what became the Bill Healy bridge across the Deschutes River, connecting the city’s south and west sides.

That work led him to the Central Oregon Environmental Center, where he served as a board member until his death.

Peter Geiser, a fellow board member, said Sheldon’s humor, good business sense and charisma helped make big events like the Center’s Evening for the Environment a success.

“He just kind of came into it and he very quickly just put his heart and soul into being a good board member and contributing,” Geiser said. “I’m sure that’s true of many things he did.”

Jenny Sheldon said her family is struggling with the sudden, shocking news that Dave Sheldon wouldn’t be coming home to the community he touched in so many ways.

“He always wanted to be a rock star,” she said. “He actually was, and he didn’t realize it.”