Michael B. Shelly Obituary (1936

Michael B. Shelly, retired ISU professor, age 88.11, died at home on 6/14/2025. He was born on 7/14/1936 to Frank and Dorothy Shelly in Amsterdam, NY. He served in the US Army in Germany from 1958-1960, where he served in a unit with Elvis Presley. He went on to earn a doctorate at Southern Illinois University and taught Public Relations at Illinois State University from 1965 to 1995. In his career, he published ten scholarly articles and a book on opinion sampling. While at ISU, he was active in removing the word Normal from the school's name. He was also instrumental in adding a liberal arts program to the previous teacher college, and supervised the Vidette, the student newspaper. One of his innovative accomplishments was called Communication Week, in which alumni returned to campus to offer advice and share experiences with undergraduates. Funeral arrangements are being handled by Beck's Memorial Home, Bloomington. Cremation rites have been accorded. He will be laid to rest at St. Mary's Cemetery in Ft. Johnson, New York. He is survived by one daughter, Gretchen Shelly (Len Meyer), two grandchildren, Kari Clark-Helmold (Nick) and Mathew (Amelia) Clark, and four great-grandchildren. He married Karen Gottlieb from East Peoria in 1962 and remarried Nancy Lang from Amsterdam in 1991. She died in 2014. While he never appeared on Jeopardy, he was a walking encyclopedia, especially when it came to history. He never met a dog or cat he didn’t like, so in lieu of flowers, donations may be made to Clover’s Cat Club. https://cloverscatclub.org/