Obituary Wesley Shull

[larrynz]

SHULL WESLEY B. SHULL, Col., USA (Ret.) A career military officer for 25 years, passed away December 29, 2007 at home after a long and honorable fight against Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD). Born in 1930, Col. Shull graduated with a Bachelor‘s of Science Degree in Biology from Pennsylvania Military College in 1952 and then saw combat action in Korea earning the Bronze Star with Valor. After the war he served at the Infantry School in Fort Benning, GA until being accepted into the Masters program at the University of Pennsylvania‘s Foreign Area Specialist Program. Upon graduation he served in Pakistan and then saw his second combat tour take him to Vietnam with the 82d Airborne as a task force advisor to the South Vietnamese Army. From the mid 1960‘s until his retirement in 1976, he held senior level intelligence positions and headed up a special unit in the Defense Intelligence Agency responsible to investigate the capture of the U.S.S. Pueblo. Col Shull also served overseas in Korea at Camp Casey as a battalion commander with the 7th Infantry Division. After leaving the military, Col Shull moved to Jamestown N.Y. to serve as VP and President of Brokenstraw Oil Corp. Upon his second retirement, he moved back to his childhood vacation home at Rainbow Lake, NJ and was actively involved in local politics. In his later years he and his wife Barbara relocated to Clayton N.C. to be close to family. He was an active member of the Grace Episcopal Mission Church. He most recently co-administered a COPD web site where his knowledge, advice and words of encouragement helped many people suffering from this disease. Survivors include his loving wife of 52 years, Barbara Peterson Shull; his brother, Dr. Elliott Shull, Jr.; his sister, Elizabeth Shull Bradley; his five children, Wesley Shull, Jr., Eric Shull, Karin Shull Benson, Retired Master Sgt. Alexander Shull and Andrew Shull; and 13 grandchildren. Services will be held 6 p.m., Thursday, January 3, 2008 at Grace Episcopal Mission Church, 10151 US Hwy 70, Clayton, NC 27520. Interment will be at Arlington National Cemetery in the near future.


Published in The Washington Post on 1/1/2008.
Guest Book • Flowers • Gift Shop • Charities

[Blossom/Jackie W.]

Larry; I just read this. Thank you for posting it. It seems to me I know, or heard of, Wes. I was also pleased to see they said the words in his obituary.....Chronic Obstructive, Pulmonary, Disease........

[John O]

Wes was one of the major members and posters to COPD Information Forum and its predecessor, COPD Support, since 2002. Page 2 of that forum, members.boardhost.com/COPD/index-2.html will show the several threads and many responses to his death. It came as a shock to many of us--although he'd had a rough couple of months he'd spent almost no time in the hospital, and I'd spoken with him almost up to the day that he passed away, probably from a heart attack. He'd been diagnosed with cor pulmonale, a complication of COPD, and had extreme sob and edema. But up to the end of the summer he'd been doing quite well for his age. He didn't post on any other forums, but we on COPD Info miss him greatly.