Leland Shirely

Friday, April 4, 2008

Leland "Lee" Kimble Shirely, PhD. died on Wednesday April 2, 2008 at his home in Cloverdale, Ind. where he has lived since 1986.

He was born on Feb. 16, 1937 to Fenton Mark Shirely and Dorothy Dean Shirely of Marshall, Ill., both of whom preceded him in death.

Leland is survived by his wife, Maureen Mooney Nichols Shirely; his daughters, Kimbra Shirely Solomon and her husband Jeff of Johnston City, Ill., Lora Shirely Pringle and husband, Michael of Dennison, Ill., their mother, Marjorie Tryon Shirely of Marshall, Ill.; six grandchildren, Derek and Dustin Solomon, Grace, Zachary, Reed and Josiah Pringle; a sister, Carole Shirely of Marshall, Ill. and a brother, William Shirely and wife, Carolyn Morecraft Shirely of Floyds Knob, Ind.

Leland graduated from Marshall Community High School, Marshall, Ill. in 1955 and earned BS and MS degrees in Engineering Sciences at Purdue University (West Lafayette, Ind.) in 1959 and 1960. After working for a year at the General Motors Research Laboratories (Warren, Mich.), he entered a doctoral program in Applied Mathematics at Brown University (Providence, R.I.) and received a PhD degree in 1964.

Leland spent most of his professional career in academe with faculty positions at the University of Illinois (Urbana, Ill.), Michigan Technological University (Houghton, Mich.) and Rose -- Hulman Institute of Technology (Terre Haute, Ind.). Leland retired from Rose-Hulman in 1999 as Professor Emeritus of Mechanical Engineering.

In addition to his teaching and research in the universities, Leland maintained an active consulting career with various companies including Caterpillar, Inc. (Peoria, Ill.), Allison Transmission Division of General Motors (Indianapolis, Ind.) and Rose-Hulman Ventures (Terre Haute, Ind.).

A visitation will be held at Bittles and Hurt Funeral Home, Greencastle, Ind. on Sunday, April 6, 2008 from 4 to 8 p.m.

A funeral service will be held at 11 a.m. on Monday April 7, 2008 at Gobin Memorial United Methodist Church, with Rev. Michael Pringle officiating. Burial will be at Livingston Cemetery in Marshall, Ill. on Monday April 7, 2008 at 2 p.m. (1 p.m. CST).

At Leland's request, memorial contributions may be directed to the Humane Society of Putnam County, P.O. Box 444, Greencastle, IN 46135 or Hospice at Visiting Nurse Service, Inc., 4701 N. Keystone Avenue, Indianapolis, IN 46205.