-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Hal Shelton
Date: Tue, 16 Nov 2004 12:13:13 -0700 (MST)
From: Thiry <[log in to unmask]>
To: Waml list <[log in to unmask]>, Maps-l
<[log in to unmask]>

------------------
All,

here is an article about Hal Shelton that appeared in our local paper, the
Golden Transcript.

--Christopher JJ Thiry
Map Librarian
Colorado School of Mines
1400 Illinois
PO Box 4029
Golden, CO 80401-0029

voice:  303-273-3697
fax:    303-273-3199

[log in to unmask]
http://www.mines.edu/library/maproom/
http://www.mines.edu/fs_home/cthiry/

Shelton, 88, revolutionized cartography
Golden man also was gifted painter, had magnetic personality

by Nicole Frey

November 11, 2004
In a world where arts and sciences are at polar opposites of the academic
spectrum, one man was able to seamlessly meld the two to create a career
and passion into which he poured his soul.

Hal Shelton was a map maker and painter who changed the face of
cartography and realism with this works. But the world will receive no
more Shelton originals. The artist, scientist, husband, father and friend
died Wednesday. He was 88.

"His work was marvelous, absolutely marvelous," said his wife, Mary
Shelton. "I was privileged in that he worked at home, and I got to watch
him develop paintings and maps, and so I felt very much emotionally part
of the scene. After 60 years, it will be quite a change."

Hal Shelton, who had started out as a teacher in California, grew to
revolutionize mapmaking when he developed a colored, shaded relief method
of creating maps during World War II. Instead of just a topographical map
outlining elevations, he created bird's eye views so pilots would be able
to identify specific landmasses as they flew over them.

The Sheltons moved to Colorado during the war and took up residence in
Golden, where they have remained for more than half a century raising four
sons: Chris, Tim, Stony and Arte.

"I always have thought he found his niche here in Golden," said Carol
Dickenson, a friend of the Sheltons for 34 years. "He was a marvelous
realist. He was old-school courtly, but at the same time very active and
energetic. He had a dune buggy he liked to drive around in. I've never
known anyone quite like him, with a personality so magnetic, stories so
interesting."

Halfway through his life, Hal Shelton switched gears, devoting his time to
painting landscapes for the artistic pleasure instead of scientific
necessity.

"After 30 years of cartography, he decided he was just more interested in
the sensory qualities of mountain and nature," Dickenson said.

Hal Shelton went on to become a founding member of the Foothills Art
Center in 1968. The Hal and Mary Shelton Elementary School in Golden was
named for the pair. Honored locally and nationally, the Library of
Congress named Hal Shelton one of the foremost cartographic artists of the
century and obtained 33 of his early map drawings and one painting.

"With the fact that he is gone now is a realization of all the things that
I didn't know about him that I'm beginning to learn," his son, Stony
Shelton, said. "I guess what I miss is that he was an extremely complex
yet generous and patient and learned man, and that, perhaps, I wish I'd
got to know him better. There are lots of things people never talk about,
not because it's taboo, but you just never get to it. The world has lost
one of the premier painters of western landscapes. There will be no new
Shelton original paintings. It's something the world will now lack."

There will be a memorial celebration for Hal Shelton at 3 p.m. Nov. 26 at
Shelton Elementary School, 420 Crawford St. He is survived by his wife,
Mary, four sons, nine grandchildren and one great grandchild. In lieu of
flowers, memorial contributions may be made to Shelton Elementary School
to benefit the arts fund.