William Shelton

Once upon a time in a magical land (Safford, Arizona) a man, Frank D. Shelton, and a woman, Adeline (Addie) L. (Zahrt) Shelton, started a family. 1 + 1 = 2. They had a lovely daughter, Anne (Shelton) White. 1 + 2 = 3. One day in September (the 10th to be exact) of 1953 a mathemagician, William (Bill) Alan Shelton, appeared and joined their family. 2 + 3 = 5. The family grew again when John (Rocky) Shelton boomed into the world. 3 + 5 = 8. The family could not go without a mechanically minded personality, so they brought brother Barry (Bear) Shelton home to entertain. 5 + 8 = 13. Little Anne so wanted a baby sister that Frank and Addie searched the world and found Kaye (Shelton) Congdon. 8 + 13 = 21.

Bill, the mathmagician, didn’t know he was a mathmagician but everything around him contained something fascinating that had to be explored. He graduated high school but wasn’t quite sure what to do with himself. After a couple of years trying out different “professions”, he knew what he didn’t want to do, so he enlisted in the Army where he served three years in communications. 13 + 21 = 34.

Bill returned home after his tour and realized he still wasn’t satisfied. He was accepted into the University of Washington in Seattle where his lady friend lived. Bill thought he’d study languages and started with Russian when he discovered the language to the universe was mathematics: the mathemagician emerged from the cocoon! He married Linda K. Young and they had a son, John. 21 + 34 = 55.   In the year 1980, Bill graduated with an BS in applied mathematics and was offered a position at Lockheed Missiles & Space in Sunnyvale, CA. Bill & Linda moved to discover yet another new world where they brought Donald and Robert into the world. 34 + 55 = 89.

During this time, Bill’s dad, Frank decided to take a walk about in the cosmos. Frank had taught Bill to dream. He would watch over his children and inspire the dreams to continue. 55 + 89 = 144.

At Lockheed, Bill could use his magical powers to look deeper into the cosmos than he had delved before. The possibilities grew exponentially when he accepted a position in Colorful Colorado. The years in Colorado were wonderous but flew by all too soon; alas, in 2002 Linda moved to the cosmos to watch over her family. 89 + 144 = 233.

Our poor mathemagician was plunged into darkness. The language of the universe was unable to console him, in fact there were times he felt as if he was drowning in darkness. Bill returned to work where he found no solace … almost. Someone new had joined the team. He had wandered into her office the day before his beloved Linda had left him and now, he had to work with her on a mathemagical test suite.  He found he could tell her things that she would not tell others … she was a secret keeper. He continued to seek her out so it should have come as no surprise when they were married. 144 + 233 = 377.

Victoria (Rohn) Shelton also had three children, Scott Zornes, Brandy Greer, and Elizabeth Plyler. Brandy even had her own daughter, Meagan. Bill nicknamed the little girl “MeagaWatt” because she just NEVER stopped moving.  Meagan called Victoria her Mimi, so when Bill joined the family, she named him Pipi Bill. The mathemagician believed in education and in his first year of marriage to Victoria, he was awarded an MS from Colorado Technical University. 233 + 377 = 610.

Time passed. Robert soon had a daughter he named Brooke. Bill was ecstatic when Brooke arrived. A grandchild for Linda to watch over and a little girl at that. Bill and Linda always wanted a little girl and now they had one. Matthew Greer entered the picture adding yet another grandchild to Bill’s life. A few more years passed when lo & behold, Luke, son of John, came to bring joy to everyone he touched. Bill so delighted in having small children around so he could pass on the mysteries of the mathemagical language. His favorite introduction to counting was: “Let me teach you how to count to 50. 1, 2, skip a few, 49, 50.” 377 + 610 = 987.

During the time of grandchildren, Bill had left Lockheed to try other positions in aerospace. Unfortunately, older employees spent more and more time documenting and less and less time applying the mathemagics. While these jobs presented some challenges, Bill found that he was no longer satisfied with his work life. He joined the teaching team at Community College of Aurora in 2010 to teach others his mathemagical tricks. So many of the students that passed through his doors were delighted to unlock the mysteries of the universal language. 610 + 987 = 1597.

In 2012, Bill and Victoria decided to try a new venture – a quilt shop. After all some of the greatest mathemagicians were quilters. They opened their doors in 2013 and Thread Loft was born. Bill tried to teach the universal language to everyone that walked into the door and was frequently met with eye rolling. Many of the customers, did not realize they were mathemagicians too.   Bill picked out the mascot, a flying pig. Several who walked through the doors wondered what a flying pig had to do with quilting. Besides being Bill’s favorite mythical creature, a flying pig represents the impossible: “When pigs fly!”  The motto of the shop was “Where the flying pigs roost” code phrase for impossible things happened there every day. 987 + 1597 = 2584.

Addie, Bill’s mom, joined in on the exploration of the cosmos early in 2021. Bill decided it was time to make other changes and set a date to close the quilt shop. He was thinking it might be time to give thought to retiring. On November 4, 2021, Bill retired from life and started his own walk about of the cosmos. While we in our physical form miss our mathemagician terribly, it is comforting to know he is delving deeper into the secrets of the universal language. 1597 + 2584 = 4181.

NOTE: Within this Mathemagical Tale, there are arithmetic statements. For those who do not recognize them, they represent the Fibonacci Sequence and, as with the set of whole numbers, the sequence continues “to infinity and beyond!”  The Fibonacci Sequence has a strong relationship with a number known as the Golden Ratio. The Golden Ratio can be applied to describe many things in nature such as the shape of a nautilus and a wave crashing on the beach. Bill would even apply it to his quilt designs. More information concerning Fibonacci can easily be found online. Bill would love to see you explore his universe of mathemagics.

Services to celebrate the life of Bill Shelton will be held as follows:

November 18, 2021 at 3:00 – a wake to share your stories at the Launch Pad Brewery located at 884 S. Buckley Rd. Aurora, CO 80017

November 20, 2021 at 3:00 – a celebration of life at Horan & McConaty located at 11150 E. Dartmouth Ave. Aurora, CO 80014

When Bill met Victoria, he wore the exact same thing every day.  His wardrobe was composed of seven blue shirts, five pairs of blue jeans, seven t-shirts, seven pairs of socks, you get the idea. It was dubbed “Bill’s Uniform” as a joke. In fact, Bill and Victoria both wore “Bill’s Uniform” when they got married, blue shirts and blue jeans.  Please wear “Bill’s Uniform” when in attendance; Bill would find it funny. Thank you.

Bill cared for both his son, Robert, and his wife, Linda, during their battles with cancer. He gave directly to those suffering from this horrific disease that caused them financial crisis. Bill believed in the research and the care provided at St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital. Please, in lieu of flowers, consider making a donation to Bill’s Fund:  http://giftfunds.stjude.org/William_Shelton.