William Albert Shedden

He was born on October 30th, 1952 in Dayton, Ohio to William Shedden and Rita Cookson. He was raised in Dayton, Ohio with his siblings. Bill joined the Marine Corps in 1970. He served with the Marine Corps for almost 9 years. He was going to re-enlist, but chose not to in order to spend more time with his two sons. After his time with the Marine Corps came to a close, he moved to Texas. There he put in a short stint on an offshore oil rig then quickly hired on at Fort Worth Center as an Air Traffic Controller.

Bill was a charter member of the air traffic control union, NATCA, serving as the first Union Chapter President. He was the president for a total of 10 years and continued to work air traffic control until his retirement in 2007. Even though he retired from being an air traffic controller himself, he couldn’t stay away and came back to teach new controllers for a number of years after.

It was at Fort Worth Center that Bill met the love of his life, Pam. Despite warnings from coworkers, Pam just couldn’t resist his sense of humor or his dimples and the two fell in love. He would propose multiple times, only for her to say “no”. Ultimately, she would ask him to marry her shortly after her 30th birthday and the two eloped to Kailua-Kona, Hawaii and got married June 30th, 1991. They raised their family together in Fort Worth, Texas.

Bill had quite a few hobbies over the years: cooking, scuba diving, camping, geocaching, going out on the lake, golf, really anything that he could enjoy with his family and an ice cold beer.

He spent most of his final years helping his wife navigate her breast cancer diagnosis and caring for her through her illness. He never missed a single doctors appointment and stayed by her side until the very end.

He was preceded in death by his wife, Pam Shedden.

He is survived by his sister, Cheryl Apgar; his children, Scott Shedden, Jon Shedden (and his wife, Reagan), Saretta Shedden, Ali Shedden, and Katey Shedden; his seven grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.

In lieu of flowers, please consider making a donation to the Manta Pacific Research Foundation.

mantapacific.org