8/14/2019 2009 Fall Cornerstone Proof -- News Shelton Obit

1/2

The life and contributions of formerLindsey Wilson College dean AsaMarshall Shelton were celebrated onSept. 16. Shelton died Sept. 12 at JaneTodd Crawford Hospital in Greensburg,Ky., after a long illness. He was 97.

Asa Shelton was one of the giantsin the history of Lindsey Wilson, saidLWC President William T. Luckey Jr.Because of his unselfish service to thecollege, Lindsey Wilson was able toweather the storms of change and blos-som into the beautiful college it istoday. Few people saw Lindsey Wilsonundergo more dramatic changes thanDean Shelton did during his more than70-year association with the college.

Shelton came to LWC in 1936 as amember of the colleges faculty. Hedrove from Lexington, Ky., to the col-lege in a Model A Ford and arrived oncampus in mid-September one day

before the start of the 1936-37 schoolyear. He took the job for a salary of $75a month plus room and board.

Shelton taught mathematics andphysics, and in 1940 he was named thecolleges registrar and dean of faculty.Until then, A.P. White had served as thecolleges president, dean, registrar andBible professor.

Shelton said he received a $25 raiseto serve as the colleges dean.

Ive always thought $25 was prettymuch what a dean was worth, Shelton

said in a 2006 interview.In spring 1942, the Lindsey Wilson

Board of Trustees name Shelton the col-leges executive vice president, a posi-tion which placed him in charge of day-to-day operations and effectively madehim acting president while White bat-tled cancer.

When we started school in 1943, weonly had about 55 students all ofwhich were girls except a couple boyswho were handicapped. The rest were

gone to the service, Shelton said in2006.

Shelton left LWC in June 1943 to

enter the U.S. Air Corps. During WorldWar II, he was a meteorologist in the21st Weather Squadron, issuing weatherforecasts to Allied forces in England,

France and Germany. He left the ArmyAir Corps in 1946 as a captain, and thenworked for one year for the KentuckyDepartment of Revenue.

Shelton said that collecting revenuefor the commonwealth of Kentucky wasnot the most pleasant job, so he lookedinto the prospect of returning to highereducation. Herman Lee Donovan, hisfirst cousin, tried to get him to return toUK, where he had been president since1941.

But Shelton instead returned to LWCin 1947 as registrar and dean of the fac-ulty, a position he held until 1952.

When he returned to the college,enrollment had swollen to more than180 students, largely because of aninflux of veterans from World War II.

Shelton said there was a marked dif-ference in the attitude among LWCmale students. Before World War II, alot of the boys liked to play around alot.

If they didnt have to do something,they didnt do it, he said in the 2006interview. After the war, they were adifferent bunch. The men who came tocampus after the war were much betterstudents they didnt play around asmuch because they learned what an

education meant while they were in theservice.

From 1952-1975, Shelton worked for

Former Professor and Dean Enjoyed

Seven-Decade Relationship with College

Asa Shelton and his wife, Tillie, ride in a car as grand marshals in the 2003 Lindsey Wilson

College Homecoming parade. File photo.

ASAMARSHALL SHELTON (1912-2009)

8/14/2019 2009 Fall Cornerstone Proof -- News Shelton Obit

2/2

the Dallas based Revere Copper &Brass Co., retiring as that companysdistrict office supervisor. Sheltonmoved back to Columbia in 1979.

In the 2006 interview, Sheltonrecalled his two tours of duty at LWCwith great fondness.

It was a very simple place we justhad gymnasium building, the girls hall,the administration building, boys halland the little training school, he said.I liked teaching at Lindsey Wilsonmore than anything Ive done.

In 1996, the Board of Trustees andFaculty honored Shelton with a doctorof human letters, honoris causa.

Shelton was born Sept. 1, 1912, on a100-acre farm in Clark County, Ky.,located about five miles fromWinchester, to the late Marshall andJessie Ingram Shelton. Shelton earned a

bachelor of arts degree in 1935 fromKentucky Wesleyan College, which wasstill located in Winchester.

While a student at KWC, Sheltonserved as captain of the colleges varsity

basketball team. Shelton then earned amaster of arts degree in 1937 from theUniversity of Kentucky.

He came to LWC thanks to a contactwith former LWC President R.V.Bennett. Shelton took classes from

Bennett who had become KWCspresident and also taught math at thecollege. When a position opened atLWC, Bennett endorsed Shelton.

I was planning on getting my PhDin math, but the person who was teach-ing math (at LWC) got a job a UK, soDr. Bennett helped me get the job down

here, he said.Shelton was preceded in death by his

first wife, Allie Breeding DillonShelton, an Adair County native and a1937 LWC alumna; and a son, David A.Shelton.

Shelton is survived by his wife,Dorothy Tillie Wood Shelton, who isa 1952 LWC alumna; a son: DanShelton of Huntsville, Texas; a grand-son, Richard B. Shelton of Plano,Texas; and three step-daughters: SueZanco of Baton Rouge, La., and JulieBosworth and Margaret Carter, both ofCharolotte, N.C.

Memorial gifts honoring Asa

Marshall Shelton can be made to

the Asa, Allie and David Shelton

Scholarship Fund or the Dorothy

Tillie Shelton Scholarship Fund.

Gifts should be sent to: Alumni

Office; Lindsey Wilson Wilson

College; 210 Lindsey Wilson Street;

Columbia, Ky. 42728.

For more information about the

scholarships, contact the college atalumni@lindsey.edu or (270) 384-

8400.

Shelton Scholarships

Asa Shelton (back row, second from left) pictured with the 1938-39 Lindsey Wilson student government. Pine Cone, 1939.

Asa Shelton and his wife, Tillie, greet Kentucky historian laureate Thomas D. Clark in September

2003 in W.W. Slider Humanities Center Recital Hall. Clark spoke at an LWC commencement cere-

mony when Shelton was dean of the faculty. File photo.