Richard Shiely

Richard (Dick) Shiely was born in Saint Paul, Minnesota, the fourth of five children, to Helene P. Shiely and Albert R. Shiely.

Dick spent his childhood growing up in Saint Paul MN, with his two brothers and two sisters. He spent his youth going Como Park next to his house, and down to the river where he always bragged he could jump across the Mississippi. He grew up playing golf with his uncle from an early age, and made the golf team in High School.

One of his earliest memories was going to the Saint Paul Saints baseball games with his father Albert, an avid baseball fan. Many great players came from these farm teams, and Dick remembered Ted Williams hitting home runs effortlessly against the Saints. He also had the pleasure of watching the University of Minnesota Gophers win three national championships as a teenager with his father.

Dick graduated Saint Thomas Military Academy in 1943, and was promptly drafted into the service on August 22 of that year.

While at Camp Swift in Texas, he heard about a new division of the army, a ski troop, and he signed up then for the 10th Mountain Division, based out of Camp Hale, Colorado. After basic training at Camp Hale, he shipped out for the attack on the Axis power Italy.

Dick Shiely, 85th Regiment, 1st Battalion, C Company, Third Platoon, was wounded by a shrapnel burst February 18th, 1945, on Mount Belvedere, between Florence and Bolonia, Italy.  He was transported to Leghorn, Italy, by Pisa, to the evacuation hospital.

His memories of combat were mostly kept to himself, as many of the Greatest Generation were. He revealed that while at the hospital, he felt the ground shaking and the sky darkened from the B17’s flying in formation, horizon to horizon, for 24 minutes straight on the way to unload their bombs on Germany. He knew the war was close to being over seeing that sight!  Recovered from his wounds, he was then queued up for the mainland invasion of Japan.

After Victory Europe (VE) day May 8th, 1945, he was sent back stateside, to the harbor of New York City on a troop ship where he witnessed fireworks and celebrations everywhere. Asking what was going on, he was told that Japan had surrendered. That would be VJ day August 15th, 1945.

Dick was honorably discharged February 20th, 1946, from the Army. He enrolled in the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis from Fall of 1946 to March 1951, getting his degree in Forestry. He lived by Como Park with his parents Albert and Helene while at the University.

Like many other GI’s of that time, seeing the United States by troop train, he had a vested interest in travelling the west, and bought an Indian Motorcycle in 1947. He left in the spring and summers to travel to every state between Minnesota and California with his fellow veteran friend Loftgarten.  One of his most distinctive memories was coming down the Ventura Highway, miles away from the Pacific Ocean, and smelling the lush vegetation and salt of the ocean 60 miles from the coast! He travelled from San Francisco to San Diego and truly loved the adventure of all of post war California. Dad traveled 232,000 miles on that Indian!

Dick graduated the U of M (as he called it) March 22, 1951, and took a wood pulp job in Coos Bay, Oregon. He worked that for a year and then skipped the rainy coast for Salt Lake City, Utah, where he had a friend.  He worked many odd jobs in Salt Lake, but his most memorable one was on the trash truck to the dump outside the town where the bears were!

Dick applied for a position with an Insurance company in Salt Lake, and as things were done then, the manager was a fellow veteran, asked about his service, and hired him on the spot. The opportunity to get a new car every two years enticed him, and he ran insurance claims border to border in the state of Montana in his new car. That is where, at a Knights of Columbus dance, he met Bridget Mary Jordan, a nanny from New York City, via County Mayo Ireland.

After a whirlwind romance, dad and mom were married in Billings, Montana, June 16th, 1956, and honeymooned at Yosemite and Yellowstone. Car camping in essence! Dad got a job for that first honeymoon year of marriage in (of all places) beautiful Santa Monica, California, living in an apartment a few blocks from the beach.  Bridget worked at GTE as an operator, and they set off on the grand adventure!

Dad worked insurance claims from Orange County to Santa Barbara, and always loved the drives on the new “Interstates” between his office on Wilshire Ave, Los Angeles and his appointments.

Well, even in 1956, Los Angeles was not the place to raise kids, dad determined, and moved with Bridget to Denver CO.
They lived in Denver shortly and then moved to a starter home in Broomfield CO, in 1957, a new city and a new development off the Boulder Turnpike. Helene was born in 1959 and Martin in 1961.

Living in the sticks, or the brooms, gave him and his children Helene and Martin great opportunity to play and ride bikes and adventure all around the farms and trails in the new community.

In 1972, after an abandoned wild idea to move back to California, dad and mom moved south of Denver to a new development at the edge of the city of Littleton. Southglenn Mall was being built and all the houses and developments around there were brand new, and Littleton had great schools for the kids.

They lived in Littleton until 1986, and then moved to Washington Park area. Dad retired from the insurance business at age 64 in 1989, and travelled many times a year to visit Martin, who lived in Orange County, until 1992. After his retirement he got a job part time at Hertz delivering cars all over the west and bringing them back to DIA Airport. His love of driving, and especially new cars, fit in perfect with that job, as he drove all new cars all the time! All told he logged almost 3,000,000 miles in his 78 years of driving cars and over 500,000 miles on motorcycles!

Bridget passed away November 2002 and dad was a widower since then. Far from being a wallflower though, dad rode his Yamaha motorcycle all over the west and put over 220,000 miles on that bike until age 83. He was an avid walker, especially in the mountains and around the city, until the doctor told him at age 86 that bicycles were better on his joints.  Since then, at age 86 to age 94, he rode many miles on the bike, as far away as Chatfield Dam from Washington Park!  Dad, because of his love of skiing, skied until age 80, skiing for free at many great Colorado ski areas for those over age 75.

On September 6th, 2019, dad had a fall at his place by Washington Park, and they had to do a hip replacement for the break. He was entrusted to the care of the wonderful Brookdale people, and he soldiered on with good cheer until his heart finally needed a rest June 29th.  He, at age 96, must have missed his wife, his parents, his brothers and sisters, and all of his friends he out lived by many, many years.

Richard is preceded in death by his loving wife Bridget, parents, Albert Shiely and Helene (nee Paulette) Shiely, brothers Albert (Edith) and Robert (Marguerite), sisters Dorothy Shiely and Barbara (Bill) Meier.

He is survived by his children Helene (Mick) Trujillo and Martin Shiely, and grandchildren Brenden, Danny, and Logan Trujillo and Erin and Thomas Shiely. He is remembered by all the relatives of the Shiely family, especially the children of his siblings, as they all knew him well as he visited them frequently in his life.

He will be sorely missed, and remembered forever.

He loved God, his family, and the United States of America.

A memorial Mass will be at the Cathedral of the Madeleine in Salt Lake City, Utah on August 10th 2021 at 11am.

Services will be at Fort Logan National Cemetery, Denver, CO, on Friday August 13th 2021 at 9am.

“Free at last, Free at last, Thank God almighty, Free at last!!”

Please donate to his favorite charity, Saint Labre Indian School, 112 St. Labre Campus Drive, Ashland, MT 59003