Birth:  7-28-1949

Deceased: 1-27-2018

Reunions attended:  20th yr

This is from her husband William Siegel

It is with the greatest of sadness that I report the death of my beloved wife Shelley Ruth Siegel (Nelson) on 27^th January 2018. She followed in the footsteps of her father Nels Nelson who taught art at GGHS and Shelley taught pre-k through grade 4 special education for 25 years with L.A. Unified School District.

I received this letter 10/26/2016 from her husband:

I’m sorry that you were unable to catch up with Shelley all those years ago. She left a massive hole in my life and those of many others. She died from pancreatic cancer that took her to the hospital on December 14, 2017 and six weeks later she was gone. Her sister Kris also passed away a year earlier from breast cancer. I was her third marriage after two brief prior marriages to an abuser and cheater in that order. By the time we met she pretty much saw herself as being worthless which was so deeply ingrained into her that she never completely shook that view.

 Life with me was insane from the start. I’d been deservedly kicked to the curb by my first wife of thirteen years for being a lousy husband and father. I wasn’t looking for more than a one night stand when we met but I fell head over heels the moment I met her and she changed my life for the better. Back in those pre-internet days I took out a personal ad in the San Diego newspaper which her close friend Judy Nelson(also a GG classmate) saw and convinced her to reply. It turned out we lived directly across the alley from one another and never saw each other before. Shelley was working as a preschool teacher at Southwestern Colleges’ daycare center. We were married at the Chula Vista, Ca courthouse by a judge friend of mine and I decided it was time to hit the road to adventure. Shelley was foolish enough to go along with the plan so we moved to Corona, Ca where we managed a 144 unit townhome complex. I should also mention that the day after we were married my ex dumped my three children at our door. Shelley was finally a mom but to three kids who acted like gargoyles. She never bore children after an automobile accident at the hands of her first husband robbed her of the ability. It was then we discovered she had an almost magical way with children being in many ways a big kid herself.

 We managed various rental properties in order to have a place to live rent free. We even opened and ran a brand new self storage facility in La Habra. During this time I was working as an unlicensed captain running large yachts out of Newport Beach until the Coast Guard began checking licenses and I left just ahead of them. I’d been on the water my entire life and was good at what I did so I decided to go to maritime school and become legally licensed. I began running a shuttle boat between two ocean piers and a fishing barge anchored off the coast two miles. From there I ran just about every type boat in the ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles. It was during this first job that we lived on Ohio Street in Long Beach. We moved so frequently that we took a post box rental to keep a steady address. I changed jobs and addresses on a whim which drove Shelley and the kids nuts. She would work in the retail shops at the waterfront villages where I docked and she became sought after as an employee due to her ability to sell anything to anyone. She set sales records wherever she went. I served as Port Ambassador for the Port of Long Beach and worked for their arch enemy Port of Los Angeles running the city-owned yacht used to entertain VIP’s. I was fired after introducing President Clinton as “President Clampett.”

 From there we moved to Catalina Island where I ran the glass bottom boats and water taxis and she ran the ticket office on the pier. We were an unbeatable team who set records. We lived there for a little over a tear before my oldest son needed medical treatment that required us to live back on the mainland.

 It was around this time that our youngest (and only remaining) son George married a teacher working for LA Unified who was able to pull Shelley aboard for her first job teaching severely disabled older students. She went from there to a school located in the San Pedro housing projects and spent her entire career there except for going to other schools to teach summer sessions. Midway through her career she was notified that she needed to get her Master’s in order to continue teaching. She was surprisingly close with fragmented credits from her earlier college years but by now didn’t think she could handle the course work so we both enrolled and I went strictly to be able to help her with her work. Between online and brick and mortar colleges she finished and submitted her documents just three days before the requirement was rescinded.

 Shelley loved her work with a passion and was personally involved with each student. She was there long enough that she had students who were the children of her past students. The payoff for her love and hard work came when she was walking down an alley behind a church to take a shortcut to the bus stop to go home she was met by three very large very intimidating gang bangers walking toward her. She was terrified when they stopped in front of her and one asked “Is your name Shelley?” to which she managed to squeak out a “yes.” It was then the man excitedly said “It’s me, Carlos! I was in you class a long time ago” and he recalled a kindness she had done for him and gave her a big hug and escort to the bus. He said the word would be out in the area to leave her alone.

 You may remember Shelley wore very thick “pop bottle” glasses her entire life and we later discovered that even with the maximum correction she was still not qualified to drive as defined by California law. I have no idea how she did everything as well as she did. I later learned she couldn’t see her students but learned to identify their voices. We finally found a specialist In Newport Beach who operated on her eyes and gave her back 20/20 without glasses. I broke down and cried watching her see clearly for the first time ever. She broke down and cried when she saw what I looked like too. She eventually forgave herself.

One last little anecdote that I ‘ll mention is that my very first words to Shelley when seeing her at her door for the first time were: “you look just like the Sugar Bear on the cereal box.” She really did as she was wearing a blue turtleneck sweater and without glasses had hamster cheeks and did bear a resemblance. For the rest of her life she was known to everyone as “Bear.” Her email is shelleythebear@yahoo.com and it started when the three kids came to live with us on day two of our marriage. The kids had a problem with ‘mom’ and ‘Shelley’ was not appropriate for youngsters so we settled on ‘Bear.’ Our phone number was 843-2327 (the-bear) and at one time she had a collection of more than 200 bears.

 I carry a lot of ‘survivor’s guilt’ after losing Shelley before she had a chance to really enjoy life. She retired the very day that she accumulated enough service credit for full retirement benefits and died one year to the day later in a house we’d packed up and were planning to move to Arizona. I don’t know if you knew her older sister Kris but hers is a sad story too. She was an ultra liberal which you’d expect from the Dean of the College of Social Work at Portland State University. I was the polar opposite and she hated me. After she died it was found she owned apartments and properties all over Portland where she allowed her poorer students to live rent free. Several of the buildings had never been transferred from the previous owner which as you can imagine was a nightmare for probate. Shelley was given half the proceeds and Kris’ daughter the other half plus her home. Each half was eight figures and Shelley’s share arrived four hours before she died.  

Shelley was a giver and nurturer in everything she did. She was genuine and a ‘what you see is what you get’ person which is what endeared her to everyone she met. She was dyslexic and a klutz which is what made her so precious to me. She joined the Society of St. Vincent de Paul and worked her way to the highest levels in the L.A. Archdiocese along with me. She loved being in the trenches feeding the poor and visiting the needy to help them and taking communion to shut-ins. Every year at Christmas I dressed up as Santa and visited her class to talk to the kids and see what they wanted under their tree. Shelley was appalled to find kids asking for underwear who wore none. She saw that every kid got what they needed. For most of our years together we kept and rescued St. Bernards for OC and South Bay LA. We had four of our own at one time. Two of her dogs appeared in a movie called “Unlikely Angel” and were fathered by the dog used for the Big Dogs clothing logo.

I owe everything I have ever accomplished to her and the sacrifices she made to take care of others. For more than two years she did the work of two people so that I could study for my licensing exams. Because of her sacrifices I was able to spend nearly twenty years as a captain of cruise ships. During her times off I’d take her along and she’d usually volunteer to help out somewhere. She even worked on the original “Love Boat” keeping count of passengers leaving and returning from shore excursions. Because of her I was able to learn to fly and own a 1929 airplane. I tell everyone that if not for Shelley I’d be living in an appliance carton beneath a bridge somewhere.

 I’ve rattled on long enough but it was good for me to write this. There’s no funeral notice as her ashes are on the console beside my desk and I’ve given instructions to put us together when I go. I’m attaching the only photo of her that I can access without going into another drive but if you’d like a better one or a print just let me know and I’ll be happy to send whatever you need. Sorry for the long and disjointed rant.

 Kindest regards,

 Bill