From his earliest days of melting lead type for the printing press to his years as editor and publisher, Robert “Bob” Shellman took to the family business with gusto.
“It was his life,” said his son, Roger Shellman, who succeeded him as editor of the Oconto County Times Herald. “He worked all day. He might come home for supper, but then he’d go back there in the evenings, too.”
Bob Shellman, 92, who passed away on Thursday, leaves behind a legacy of strong community journalism.
“He ran the newspaper with integrity,” Roger Shellman said. “I had to fight tooth and nail for changes I thought were necessary, but he was always honest with me, and he was always honest with the public, too.”
“He took his charge as editor seriously and never allowed favoritism to color the truthfulness of his reporting,” said his wife, Loretta Shellman, who also worked at the Times Herald.
She described Bob as intelligent, sensitive, upright and honorable — a person who lived by the Golden Rule at home and at work.
“He had a sense of obligation to the family and Oconto Falls,” she said.
That sense of obligation also was expressed in his service to his country. Bob Shellman, who served during World War II, witnessed the atrocities at Buchenwald Concentration Camp in Germany, a day after it was liberated in 1945.
After earning a bachelor’s degree in business administration, he joined the staff of the Times Herald in 1948, when his dad, Ernest John “E.J.” Shellman, was editor. Bob Shellman became editor in 1974 and remained with the newspaper into the 1990s.
“He’d been in business for a lot of years,” said businessman Toby Peterson, of Peterson Ford. “I’ve known Bob all my life — wonderful fella.”
Dave Polashek, former school district superintendent and Times Herald columnist, called Bob Shellman a “treasure chest of information about the community.”
Bob Shellman was the first person Polashek contacted to learn about Oconto Falls when he applied to be district superintendent.
“I viewed him as a spokesman for the community. He had a thumb on the pulse of the community,” he said.
Bob Shellman was famous for his midmorning coffee with people of influence in the city, he added.
The 1941 graduate of Oconto Falls High School was one of the first individuals inducted into the high school Hall of Fame, an event Polashek said occurred at a football game — a fitting location for a man who found his niche by covering high school sports.
“He loved it,” Roger Shellman recalled. “He’d be taking pictures, taking notes. I think he loved that the most.”
As his dad’s official bag boy, Roger Shellman remembers carrying the camera plates and flash bulbs on the sidelines of the football field.
According to Roger Shellman, his dad’s earliest memories of the business were of melting down the lead type from the previous day’s press run and cleaning the print shop.
“Dad started work, gosh, I think it was in grade school,” Roger Shellman said.
With virtually a lifetime devoted to the Times Herald, Bob Shellman leaves behind a mountain of newspaper clippings and a deep imprint on Oconto Falls.
“The community will miss him,” Polashek said.
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