Robert R. Shenefield

1923 - 2017

(News story) Robert R. Shenefield, a World War II veteran who was an agent for the fire and casualty insurance agency started by his father, died Feb. 8 in Brookdale Chandler Ray Road assisted living facility in Chandler, Ariz. He was 93.

His daughter, Ellen Kayser, said the cause of death was listed as congestive heart failure.

Mr. Shenefield, who lived in Ottawa Hills and Sylvania, joined his father, Roland A. Shenefield, in the family-owned insurance business in 1947 after he served in World War II and obtained an insurance degree from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia.

The company, which eventually became R.A. Shenefield & Sons, Inc., became one of the leading personal fire and casualty insurance agencies in the Toledo area. It merged in 1963 with another veteran firm, Picton-Cavanaugh Inc., which specialized in commercial and industrial insurance.

The firms operated under the Picton-Cavanaugh name. Mr. Shenefield remained as a vice president with the company.

Mrs. Kayser said her father continued with the agency until 1977 when he and his wife, Lucille, relocated to South Carolina.

"He had too much energy, so he went back to work," she said.

He first worked for an agency in Columbia and later in Spartanburg. After his wife died in 2013, he moved to Chandler to be near his daughter.

He was born on Aug. 24, 1923, in Lansing.

Mrs. Kayser said he attended Ottawa Hills High School for three years but he spent his senior year in an out-of-state military school because his father sensed there was going to be a war.

He graduated in 1942 and went directly into the U.S. Army. After some initial training in Arkansas, he was tested to see if he had the aptitude to be a physician.

"But he did not, and they sent him on to college, which became important later," his daughter said.

Trained as a radio operator, he was later shipped to England with an Army Corp of Engineers battalion. He was dispatched with other troops to Europe after the D-Day invasion and then took a ship through the Suez Canal to the Philippines.

After the war, he applied to the Wharton School for admission and was accepted with a full bachelor's degree because of the education he received in the Army, his daughter said.

He married the former Lucille Daly on Sept. 6, 1947. They met while he was attending college.

Surviving are his daughter, Ellen Kayser; sons, Robert, Jr., and Charles Shenefield; five grandchildren, and six great-grandchildren.

Private services will be held later at Toledo Memorial Park Cemetery. Tributes are suggested to Hospice of the Valley in Phoenix.

This is a news story prepared by the staff of the Toledo Blade.