The Story of Glenn A. Shelby

I am a Pennsylvania native, but have been in Huntsville, AL ever since I started my undergrad here in 2019. The greatest benefit of living in Huntsville is that we have so many engineers it’s hard to find people who aren’t engineers. This laid the foundation for one of my greatest discoveries, the Downtown Huntsville Friends of the Library. I have likely cleaned out this bookstore’s STEM section multiple times now, and I have no intention of stopping. One of the coolest books I have found there, however, is a text called “EMP Interaction: Principles, Techniques, and Reference Data” by K. S. H. Lee.

Photo of EMP Interaction: Principles, Techniques, and Reference Data” by K. S. H. Lee. Copy is in great condition, thanks to Glenn’s care over the 20+ years it was in his possession

While this book is cool on its own, the coolest part about it is its prior owner, Glenn A. Shelby. When I first opened the cover, I thought that Glenn may have been related to Senator Shelby, but I quickly proved myself wrong with a google search. However, I was interested and decided to fork up $80 dollars, which is a lot at a used bookstore where the average cost is $2, and brought it home. After looking through the book some more, I found not just Glenn’s signature, but a custom personal library stamp embossed into a page.

Photo of Glenn’s personal library stamp in the inner pages of the book

I decided to research Glenn more, and unfortunately found his obituary. Glenn passed away in 2015 at the age of 51. The following is a recounting of my research into Glenn A. Shelby’s life, education, and career.

Glenn A. Shelby was born in 1963 in Paducah, KY, and graduated from Ballard County Kentucky High School in 1981. He then went on to attend Murray State University with a bachelor’s degree in physics engineering in 1986. He then went on to attend the University of Alabama in Huntsville, earning his master’s degree in electrical engineering.

Photo of Murray State University

Photo of the University of Alabama in Huntsville

Upon his graduation from Murray State, Glenn began his professional career as an electrical engineer with the Nichols Research Corporation in Huntsville, AL. Glenn joined the Nichols Research Corporation at a time when the company was rapidly growing with a windfall from former President Ronald Reagan’s Strategic Defense Initiative, also know at the Star Wars Program. Interestingly enough, I worked on the Ground Based Midcourse Defense system, which is the successor to the Star Wars Program, small world.

Photo of the proposed Star Wars System

Glenn worked at the Nichols Research Corporation for 14 years, and he primarily worked on the Patriot Missile System program as an electromagnetic environmental effects engineer. During the Gulf war, the technology that Glenn had a hand in building gained worldwide recognition as the guidance systems from the Nichols Research Corporation allowed patriot missiles to intercept Iraqi Scud missiles.

Photo of a Patriot Battery

Another interesting coincidence is that during my college internship at UAH, I worked on a program called IBCS, aka the Integrated Battle Command system, and once again crossed paths with Glenn’s work, as I had some dealings with Patriot Systems.

Eventually, Glenn left Nichols and joined NASA, where he continued his work as an electrical engineer, eventually becoming the Lead Engineer and EMI Lab Manager for the Marshall Space Flight Center’s EMI Test Facility.

After I found the book and the obituary, I wanted to contact the family to let them know the book was in good hands. I could tell that Glenn cared for his books, as the condition was flawless despite him acquiring the book in 1996.

The issue, however, is that I have no social media, no Facebook, no Instagram, the only thing I have is LinkedIn basically. Luckily, I have my personal social media research assistant, my mom (Jokes, but she was helpful in this case). She was able to contact Glenn’s wife, Maria, and get into contact. It is because of Maria’s recommendation that I have my own personal library stamp, a gift from my mom.

TODO: More info on Glenns career, specifically programs he supported over his career at nasa

TODO: intervie Maria Shelby for more details

TODO: add Glenns family details, service, hobbies, etc to flush out article