Shelton was recently named 'Mr. Rappahannock' for his river-protection efforts. In this 1982 photo, he argues against uranium mining.

Fredericksburg Mayor Bill Beck congratulates outgoing Vice Mayor Gordon Shelton last week after presenting him with a retirement watch in honor of his service to the city. Shelton did not seek re-election this year, ending a 24-year career on the City Council. rez

This Rappahannock Canal footbridge is one of many city projects Shelton championed.

Shelton waits to testify at a 1985 hearing on uranium mining in the Rappahannock watershed. He helped fight off the proposal.

Shelton's basement is crammed with binders, boxes, maps and videotapes from his 24 years of city service.

Shelton (back to camera) is greeted by Councilman Joe Wilson (left) and Del. Bobby Orrock of Spotsylvania at his retirement party. Shelton played a key role in the 1984 annexation of county land which became a boon for the city's finances, but that didn't stop Spotsylvania officials from attending his party. ram

Fredericksburg Vice Mayor Gordon Shelton marks his last day in office today, ending a 24-year career.

By ELIZABETH WATERS
The Free Lance-Star

Date published: 6/30/2002

Retiring Shelton helped swell city's size, coffers

FREDERICKSBURG Vice
Mayor Gordon W. Shelton
Jr. could have quit 12
years ago when he hit
retirement age.

Or when he got prostate cancer in 1991. Or when his wife, Bootsie, died two years ago.

But every second and fourth Tuesday of the month, he returned to his leather wing chair in City Hall's council chambers.

After today, that chair will no longer be his. Besieged by health problems and a turning political tide, he's retiring after 24 years on the council.

"I'm 77 now, heading toward 78. I think it's long past the time I should have hung it up, I'm sure," the city native said Tuesday upon receiving his retirement watch from Mayor Bill Beck.

Shelton--the only child of Gordon and Gladys Shelton--lived for his first 17 years in the 500 block of Lafayette Boulevard. His father worked at a coffee- and peanut-roasting plant on Frederick Street.

Shelton graduated from James Monroe High School in 1942, when it was still in the Maury School building. He went into the Navy in 1943, where he was trained in electrical theory and later became an instructor at Camp Peary.

Two days after his discharge in 1946, Shelton started his electrical contracting business in Fredericksburg. He married and had three children.

His political career didn't begin until late in life.

After Shelton was in a head-on collision with a drunken driver in 1971, doctors told him he wouldn't have much of a life. But anyone who knows Shelton knows he loves to prove people wrong.

As soon as he was well enough to leave his bed, he began regularly attending meetings of the council and various other city boards. It wasn't long before he became known as a watchdog.

Pretty soon, Shelton was spending so much time keeping up with city business--the accident forced him to stop work as an electrical contractor--that he decided to run for office.

He became a city councilman in 1978, but he didn't quit being a watchdog.

"If it wasn't a full-time job, I made it one," Shelton says of his tenure on the council.

Read more stories about Fredericksburg
Date published: 6/30/2002