Andrew Shelpuk

Shelpuk, Andrew C.

Rochester: 49, spent his life problem-solving and getting at the root cause of why things didn't work. And then, he not only made those things work, but made them better. Deeply motivated to serve, he once wrote: "It is always easier to solve someone else's problems. Often, the most seemingly minor insight or observation can provide you the clue you need for your own situation. When you can see where someone else is stuck and help them, they, in turn, can help you."

Early Tuesday morning on August 9, 2016, as Andy was preparing to head out into the world to help someone else, he died suddenly at his Rochester, NY home. He had been waiting for surgical clearance.

Born and raised in Princeton, NJ, Andy was an expert in motion control. He was awarded a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from Princeton University. He had the ability to look at any system in motion and "see" what was right and what was wrong. He transformed the obsolete into fully modernized and intelligently linked systems. He did not believe compromise was possible when safety and excellence was at stake.

His keen eye also made him a highly skilled pool player and a talented musician. He started composing music in college, named his first band "The Dead Sea Scrolls," and was an avid listener and collector of recorded music. He described himself this way: "I'm an engineer. I'm also an artist, which makes an interesting juxtaposition. There's a fence between logic and emotion that can be hard to cross -- sometimes it's a low picket, sometimes barbed wire; sometimes the Great Wall of China. But we all need to get across it at some point. What tool do you use? Reductio ad absurdum. Make it funny. Psychologically, that lowers the fence and buys time to get things done together."

He loved words and he used them well. At every place that he worked, in his uniquely sesquipedalian way, he would nudge a penurious finance colleague or rib a maladroit engineer. Although he was seen as a private and quiet man of brilliant intellect and rapier wit, he listened and he heard with great compassion. Remember him as a champion of all beings with fur, feathers, and funny bones who needed an ear, or even more, needed some cheer. Family and friends will hold a memorial service in his honor later this year in Princeton, NJ.