SHELLEY PENNINGTON

Shelley Pennington, 65, of San Antonio TX, passed away in NJ on June 25, 2021 after a valiant battle with ovarian cancer.

Shelley was born in Hawaii. She was the second of five children of Naval officer Jack Pennington and his wife Betty Jo. Shelley followed her father in serving in the US Navy, beginning with the Reserve Officers' Training Corp while a student at her beloved Rice University. Shelley played basketball in college all four years. After graduating with a degree in computer science, Shelley completed Naval flight training as part of the second class that allowed women to train as pilots. She was one of 16 women in a class of over 1,000.

TWA recruited Shelley in 1985. Shelley resigned from the active military to transfer to the US Navy Reserves in which she served with honor for three decades. Shelley was courted by many airlines and family lore maintains that Shelley opted for TWA because that airline offered the most generous travel benefits for her ever-frugal parents, who then took great joy in travelling the world first class, compliments of TWA.

After 10 years of flying with TWA, Shelley was recruited by UPS where she was promoted several times, ending her career as the Chief of Pilot Safety for the 757 and 767 aircrafts. In that position she had many responsibilities, including being alerted at random days and times of a flight mishap. She would then fly to various UPS sites around the world to investigate and resolve issues. Her keen intellect and logical, dispassionate analysis of mechanical, procedural, human and structural contributors to an issue allowed her to pinpoint fixes to increase safety and efficiency.

Shelley satisfied her drive to compete athletically by competing with and leading teams of military reservists from many NATO nations in an annual 3 day pentathlon of orienteering and specialist military skills. Each year Shelley would coach and encourage her team for months while also engaging in grueling training herself. She earned the respect of her teammates and competitors, and made many lifelong friends in her two decades of involvement.

Like her father, Shelley was an avid amateur distance runner, qualifying for and competing in the Boston Marathon for many years, along with racing in numerous other races. Exceptional in her ability to "gut it out" and prevail in long, challenging feats of physical prowess and endurance, Shelley found her "favorite" event to be four days of road racing competition at Florida's Disneyworld: a 5K followed by a 10K race on day 2, then a half-marathon on the 3rd day and culminating with a full marathon on day 4. She tremendously enjoyed the companionship of running friends and buddies at this event. Summers also found Shelley biking across Iowa with thousands of others and her with her dearest pal and fellow competitor Trish Gibbs.

Shelley retired from UPS in 2012 to return to care for her mother and her father in their final years, moving between their residence in San Antonio TX, which became her home, and their summer home in Pennington NJ.

Shelley will be dearly missed by her four siblings, numerous nieces and nephews, and friends throughout the world.