Shelby Laray Walters, 89, died peacefully at his home Tuesday evening, December 15, 2009. Shelby was born in Bon Secour, Alabama on August 06, 1920 to Dr. Joel Edward Walters and Mattie Shows Walters, who preceded him in death, along with his sister, Helen Walters Young, his infant daughter, Faith, and his son, Tommy. Also preceding him in death was his wife of 32 years, Ruth Cowan Walters, mother of his children; his wife of 13 years, Rosalyn Beard Walters. He is survived by his present wife of 20 years, Louise Blasi Walters; his children, Shelby L. Walters, Jr. (Kelly), Joel C. Walters and Abigail Walters of Vero Beach; his step-children, Laurie (Joel) Roberts, Brenda (Philip) Robinson, Larry Beard and Janet Blasi Blasecki; and four grandchildren. Shelby was valedictorian of his Foley High School class of 1938 and worked his way through the University of Alabama, as a freshman living in the Old Observatory which was one of three buildings remaining on campus after the Civil War. On Pearl Harbor Day, while working in the Statistical Branch of the War Department in Washington, D.C., he was one of six metallurgical engineering students who ran IBM cards on every alien in the United States. After completing his degree in chemistry at the University of Alabama in 1942 he was employed in the Physical and Inorganic Chemistry Section of the Naval Research Laboratory in Washington D.C. In 1946 he returned to the University of Alabama to teach Organic Chemistry and completed his master's degree. Later, at Callery Chemical Company in Pennsylvania he worked closely with Admiral Rickover in developing nuclear submarine technology. In 1952 he was hired as Chief Chemist of the Chemstrand Corporation to staff and equip the chemical laboratory at the new Pensacola Plant under construction. He retired in 1979 after filling numerous managerial positions and Superintendent of Quality Control. He and his wife, Ruth, were active in starting the Cerebral Palsy organization in Pensacola, since previously they had established such an organization in Butler, Pennsylvania for the benefit of their son, Tommy. Shelby served as Chairman of the Pensacola College Board of Trustees 1969-1972 and as Vice Chairman in 1976. He was an elder in the former Knox Presbyterian Church in Cantonment. He and his wife, Ruth, were active in organizing the Wesley Chapel on Olive Road, a mission church of Ferry Pass Methodist Church. Shelby and his wife, Louise, are members of McIlwain Memorial Presbyterian Church. Interment at Bayview Memorial Park.

h/o Ruth (Cowan) Walters
h/o Sallie Rosalyn (Page) Brown Beard Walters
h/o Ethel Louise (Chatterton) Blasi Walters m1989
s/o Martha N "Mattie" (Shows) Walters