Ronald Anthony Sheffler, known as Joe to family and friends, died at CPMC Hospital, San Francisco, CA, January 5, 2025. He was eighty-one and had been afflicted with coronary problems for several months. He was a poet, a scholar in many fields, a business executive, a world traveler, a connoisseur, and a devoted husband and friend to many over decades.
Joe was born in Wood County, Ohio, the third son of James Francis Sheffler, a tool and die maker and farmer, and Cletus Eckel Sheffler, a teacher. He was preceded in death by an older brother, Thomas (Mary) and a younger brother, Dudley (Barbara). He is survived by his wife of 38 years, Christine, his brother James (Sherri) of Pemberville, OH; his sister Laura Gray (Ronald) of Midway, KY; his sisters-in-law Mary and Sherri, and many nieces and nephews.
Joe graduated from St. Joseph Preparatory in Bardstown, Kentucky. He garnered his B.A. from Bowling Green State University. There he studied literature under Dr. Frederick Eckman, a life-altering experience, as Joe so often remarked. This sparked his graduate school studies at the University of Massachusetts Amherst where he earned a PhD in English with a dissertation on the ultra-modern American poet, Robert Creeley. Following that, for most of the 1970s Joe taught at the University of Maryland’s Southeast Asia Division, rotating through U.S. military bases in Japan, Vietnam, Taiwan, and Laos. His travels and experiences were reflected in many of his writings.
Back in the States Joe embarked on a seventeen-year career in telecommunications at Reliance
Comm/Tec, AMP, Inc., retiring as general manager of Force Electronics in Santa Clara, CA.
He wrote three books of poetry: Dirty Dogs, Playing Clean, and Busy Dying.
As a free-lance scholar Joe’s interests were remarkably varied. He continued to read literature but was also intrigued by modern art and architecture, by film, jazz, blues, mariachi, and by Asian cultures and cuisines. Nor were these the mere glances of a dilettante. They were instead rigorous, self-designed courses of study on such subjects as the modern jazz saxophonist, Art Pepper, the films of Buster Keaton, and the places Christine and he traveled.
Joe was a real Bucknut who passionately followed the Ohio State Buckeyes football team.
Perhaps most of all Joe was a great friend and companion. His love and admiration for his wife,
Christine, was obvious to visitors. Their intellectual pursuits were shared and relished. Their beautiful home was shared with friends from his Ohio boyhood, from his undergraduate days, from graduate school and their joint relatives and business associates. A phone call from Joe was always a beguiling mixture of reminiscence, humor, and erudition. He will be remembered for his graciousness, his intellectual conversations, his openness to a variety of insights, and his humor. All who knew him feel an acute and ongoing absence.
A memorial will be planned at a later date. Arrangements are being handled by Crippen and Flynn Funeral Chapels in California (www.crippenandflynnchapels.com).
