Robert William Shields

REV. ROBERT WILLIAM SHIELDS

Dayton, Wash.

Hubbard-Rogg Funeral Home

Rev. Robert William Shields, 89, of 217 E. Oak St. Dayton, WA, died October 15, 2007, at his home. A celebration of his life will be 1 p.m. Saturday, October 20, 2007, at the First Congregational, United Church of Christ in Dayton with Rev. Steve Edwards officiating. Reception will follow the services at the church. Burial will be in the family plot in the River View Cemetery in Seymour, Indiana. There will be a viewing for family and friends at 7 p.m. Friday at the Hubbard-Rogg Chapel. Those who wish may contribute to the charity of the donor's choice.

He was born May 17, 1918, in Seymour, Indiana. His parents were John and Ada Vincent Shields. He attended local schools and graduated with a B.A. Magna Cum Laude from Franklin College, Indiana, in 1944. On August 16, 1942, he was ordained at Hopewell Baptist Church and was minister at Hopewell, Alpha and First Mount Baptist churches in southern Indiana. As town minister of Deerfield, New Hampshire, he directed the 1947 Deerfield Bible pageant.

In 1956 in Chicago he worked for the Jerry Bryant Art Studio and World Book Encyclopedia and Childcraft, of which he was made state manager of Ohio and West Virginia. He taught English at four high schools; in Cowen, West Virginia, Martin, South Dakota and Kennewick and Dayton, Washington. He also worked five years for the R. Wallace Pischel Yearbook company.

On August 20, 1960, he married Grace Augusta Hotson in Green Mountain Falls, Colorado. They had three children: Cornelia, Heidi, and Klara, all of whom were born in Kennewick and graduated from Washington State University in Pullman. Cornelia is a writer, Heidi a family practicing physician in Dayton and Klara an attorney in Seattle.

Mr. Shields is the author of the world's longest diary. He retired from teaching in 1979, and was founder and first president of Manuscripts International. He was founder and first president of the American Divinity Academy, Inc., the Church of the Servant, and Executive Secretary of the National College Student Foundation, Inc., from 1943 to 1953. He was a 32nd Degree Mason and Past Master of the Dayton Lodge. He was the founder and first president of the New Hampshire Philatelic Association, Inc. He gave 3,000 books to Whitman College in Walla Walla, and 100 books to Washington State University, with a large pen and ink drawing he made of Abraham Lincoln, his diary, and numerous photographs and documents.

In February of 1991, he suffered a stroke from which he made satisfactory recovery, and in June of 1997 a more severe stroke from which he never fully recovered, followed by another severe stroke in May of 1998. Besides his wife and children, he is survived by his brother, Monty Shields and his family, all of Seymour, Indiana. He was preceded in death by his parents, 2 brothers, James and John, and sister, Nancy.