Obituary of Carey S. Sheldon

Carey S. “Pat” Sheldon Carey S. “Pat” Sheldon, age 95, of Pickerington, Ohio, passed away peacefully at Canal Winchester Care Center on Thursday, October 15, 2020. He was born on August 6, 1925, in Ashtabula, the son of Carey S. Sheldon and Ruth Dunbar Sheldon, and had been an Ashtabula resident all his life until March of 2018 when he moved and made his home with his daughter Nancy in Pickerington, Ohio. A 1943 graduate of Ashtabula High School, he attended Emporia State (Kansas) Teachers College during World War II while in the US Army Air Force. In 1944 he received his commission as a 2nd Lieutenant, and was a navigator on B-17s, flying air-sea rescue missions in the South Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea. While in the service he married his high school sweetheart, Marion Bates Sheldon, on March 2, 1945, in Gulfport, Mississippi. After the war they attended college together. Following two years of undergraduate study at Denison University, Pat then continued his education and graduated from the Cincinnati College of Law in June 1949 with an LLB degree. He passed the Ohio State Bar examination in November 1949, and immediately entered into the general practice of law in Ashtabula with retired Judge William N. Shane. The family then made their home in Ashtabula and raised their five children. That marriage lasted for more than 71 years. Marion died on March 22, 2016. In November 1951 Pat was elected as Ashtabula’s City Solicitor, and then reelected in 1953 for a second two-year term. His private law practice continued into the 1990s with partnerships involving Attorneys William Shane, James C. Warren, and Mark Andrews in Ashtabula, and Harold E. Kaufman and Gary Coxon in Conneaut. Those included appearances before the 11th District of the Ohio Appellate Court, the Ohio Supreme Court, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, Federal District Court, and Federal 6th District Court of Appeals. Excellence in radio broadcasting of Ashtabula County high school football and basketball games was established beginning in 1970 by a Sports Team consisting of Pat, Jim Cordell, Gene Gephart, Ed Batanian and Jon Hall. “For more than the next 35 years, beginning with support from then station owners Dick and David Rowley, and direction from Manager Dana Schulte, we developed this team for radio WICA, WFUN, and 970ESPN, with a broadcasting reputation for accurate and complete games. It was exciting and knowledgeable reporting, along with probing interviews involving coaches, players, and game officials.” In 2007 Pat was inducted in to the Ashtabula County Basketball Foundation Hall of Fame, and in 2006 for his leadership in sports broadcasts, Pat received the Media Service Award from the Northeast District of the Ohio High School Athletic Association. In 2008 Pat and the Sports Team were recognized and inducted as members of the Ashtabula County Football Hall of Fame; and in 2016, recognizing 35 years of broadcasting Ashtabula area high school sports, Pat and the Sports Team were inducted into the ESPN-97 FUN Radio Hall of Fame. For a limited time period in the 1970s and 1980s Pat led WICA-WREO’s election nights with projections of winners, results, and interviews with political candidates and government officials. A member of Second Congregational Church, he served as a member of the church’s Cabinet, the church’s governing board, and the Diaconate. Earlier, and until that church closed, for more than sixty years he was a very active member of Ashtabula’s First Congregational Church, where he served as Sunday school superintendent, teacher, moderator, and as a member of the Cabinet. In the 1950s and 1960s Pat was active in civic and community affairs as a member of the Board of Directors of the YMCA and the Ashtabula Rotary Club. He was a member of the Board of Directors of the First Federal Savings & Loan Association. In 1965 he was elected and served for the next five years as a board member of the Ashtabula Area City Board of Education. Additionally, he was a founder and first secretary/treasurer of Ashtabula Little League baseball, and was a coach and team manager for several years, and Pat was honored in January 1952 as the recipient of the Ashtabula Junior Chamber of Commerce Leadership and Distinguished Service award. He was one of the founders and a board member of the Ashtabula, Harbor, and Lakeside Alumni Association. His survivors include four children, daughters Betsy Sheldon Burke (Ed) of Jefferson, Nancy Sheldon of Pickerington, OH, Lisa Brown (Thad), of The Villages, FL, and son John “Josh” (Robin Jaskela Sheldon) of The Villages, FL; eight grandchildren: Erin Burke McClintock (Gary), of Cranberry Township, PA, Darcy Burke Ginader (Geoffrey) of Erie, PA, Julie Blum Waites (Nicholas) of Pickerington, OH, Lauren Blum of Geneva, Meredith Sheldon of Houston, TX, MSgt Seth Carey Sheldon (Arielle) of Tipp City, OH, Taylor Brown of The Villages, FL, and Lt. Thaddeus Brown IV (Bailee) of Corpus Christi, TX; nine great-grandchildren: Alex, Sara, and Jake McClintock, Sophia and Jackson Ginader, Samuel, Owen, and Ryan Waites, and Emory Sheldon, along with his close nephew David Sheldon and many beloved nieces and nephews. He was preceded in death by his parents, Carey S. Sheldon, Jr. (1941) and Ruth Dunbar Sheldon (1974), his brothers David D. Sheldon (1943) and John L. Sheldon (1962), his sisters Dorothy Sheldon Hargesheimer (1985) and Carol Sheldon Rugg Keyes (2008), his son Mark Carey Sheldon (1961), and his wife, Marion (2016). In each family there is one who seems called to find the ancestors, to put flesh on their bones and make them live again, to tell the family story. Dad was that person. He was our scribe, our record-keeper. He never went anywhere without his camera, always at the ready for a candid shot of a grandchild or a perfect sunset. He couldn’t unclog a drain or fasten a bolt, but had an array of tools that a carpenter would envy. We will miss him every day. “Don’t grieve for me, I’ve had a great life. More than 95 years of an interesting and creative career, some positive time in public service, exciting community activity, a fine experience in radio with good friends, a productive, happy marriage of 71 years, a large, still growing, accomplished, happy, and loving family. Certainly some bad times, but those were easily overcome by the good times.” At his request, there will be no funeral service or calling hours, a private service for family. It would please Pat to have contributions made in his memory to The Ashtabula Little League, P.O. Box 2244, Ashtabula, Ohio, 44004-0855. The family would like to thank everyone at the Canal Winchester Care Center for the thoughtful attention they have given Carey during the time he spent there. Their care and concern is greatly appreciated. DUCRO FUNERAL HOME AND CREMATORY, 4524 Elm Avenue, Ashtabula, Ohio is assisting the family with arrangements.www.ducro.com