Melvin Jack Shelley

Melvin Jack Shelley (“Mel”), 93, passed away peacefully at Carlton AgeCare in Burnaby on October 24, 2025, surrounded by family. Born May 17, 1932, in Kelowna, B.C., to Grace Foulds, and lovingly raised by Grace and her British immigrant parents, John T. and Ellen—a coal higgler and a prairie midwife—until Grace married Art Shelley. At the beginning, he answered to the nickname “Billy.”

Dad grew up supporting the family businesses—the Shelley Pet Store and Speedy Delivery Service. He learned the value of service, accountability, and daily routine, and he cultivated a selfless conscientiousness that would pervade his entire life. Always capable of any task put before him, he operated the sidecare-equipped Harley Davidson delivery motorcycles from an early age with ease, and a lone scar on one cheek invited cautionary tales of youthful indiscretion.

Mel attended University of British Columbia, graduating in 1955 with a Bachelor of Applied Science (B.A.Sci.) in Civil Engineering (P.Eng.), and he was a proud member of Sigma Phi Delta, the international social fraternity of engineers. He earned a $50 prize (a week’s wages at the time) from the Better Business Bureau for his essay on Ethics in Business—a subject on which he would become expert and remain resolute.

Continuing his studies, Mel went on to attain his Master of Business Administration in 1957. He was UBC’s first and only M.B.A. graduate in that inaugural year—in a program that he both proposed and helped author—one of many lifelong patterns of taking initiative and creating his own opportunities. It was at the nascent UBC Faculty of Commerce and Business Administration that he met his loving wife of 60 years, Mary Ann, marrying in 1954. In explaining his M.B.A., Dad would frequently joke that he needed a reason to stay at UBC for the two years remaining in Mom’s Commerce degree.

Mel’s engineering journey began surveying the Kemano dam site during summer breaks from college, work he described described plainly, and factually, as “hot. Damn hot. And dusty.” Upon graduating, Mel and Mary Ann moved back to the Okanagan, and there he started his professional career as the City Engineer in Vernon—where his first son Leigh would be born in 1959. Never one to miss an opportunity, while Leigh was busy entering this world following Mary Ann’s self drive to hospital, Mel was away interviewing for City Engineer in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan—a position he secured in 1960. Another move with his young family to Brandon, Manitoba, provided his first City Manager position in 1963, and he would return to Moose Jaw again in 1965 as the City Commissioner, where his second son, Scott, was born—followed by daughter Maurya in 1967.

Mel and Mary Ann would lose their precious daughter, Maurya, to leukaemia just before her third birthday—a loss our Great Aunt Gwynne would say forever changed him.

His wife pregnant with their fourth child, Mel decided a new start was in order, and so they would settle back west, in Burnaby, British Columbia, where he would become their longest serving Municipal Manager—and it was there that their youngest son, Todd, was born in 1971. Mel would spend the rest of his life in Burnaby in the family home on Neville Street—over 54 years.

Mel’s nearly two-decade tenure at the Municipality of Burnaby would span six mayors while he reliably guided and guarded the municipality’s growth into a thriving “City.” He brought forth a number of innovations—including early adoption of technology, and fiscal planning which pulled debt servicing expenditures away from the banks and placed them squarely in the municipality’s reserves as profits. He helped modernize systems, and championed a community-minded approach to problem-solving. He formed the Loaned Executive Assistance Program (LEAP), bringing together top executives of Burnaby businesses to meet as an organizational resource for the City’s effectiveness. Mel was a creative and collaborative thinker, and his legacy was steady and stable growth—an analogy for his own path.

After over 30 years of dedicated service, Mel would leave the public sector in 1989, and spend the next 25 years in private consultancy under Melvin J. Shelley & Associates, advising on civic management across BC and the Arctic. That same year, he joined civil engineering firm Urban Systems as a VP, playing a role in a number of significant regional infrastructure projects—including the Cassiar Connector in Vancouver, expunging the Trans-Canada Highway’s last remaining traffic light within the GVRD. He was ardent supporter of education with a passion for learning, and through Urban Systems he helped develop the U-Pass program, which continues to provide funded public transit to all British Columbia post secondary students. Mel was an advisor and educator at the Banff Centre School of Management for many years, and a speaker and guest educator at many others, such as Camosun College and UBC.

Further afield, he provided strategic planning for the Open Cities Project in Beijing, China, prior to Tiananmen in the 80s, and he facilitated workshops, case studies, and policy development from Yukon to Cambridge Bay and Iqualuit. Mel spent many of his consultancy years advising First Nations on civic management within their newly acquired self governance treaties.

His door was always open; he was always ready to roll up his sleeves and help; he was a friend to all.

Dad never truly retired.

In his younger years, Mel enjoyed a pipe and the occasional glass of scotch-whiskey, but he would eschew both in his mid 20s. After Maurya’s passing, he took up daily military-style calisthenics each morning in the middle of the living room floor—seven days a week, and well before exercise for stress was understood and fashionable—and he would reliably imbibe a celebratory glass of sherry at seasonal holiday dinners—the practice of both he continued well into his 80s.

Mel was a Master Mason at 27, and life-long Rotary member, with decades of perfect attendance at the Burnaby Rotary Club—including service as president and multiple terms as a board director. He devoted a significant portion of his time to charity and community service. During his later years, he provided ongoing care and support to his indomitable Aunt Gwynne—his mother’s youngest sibling, who, at just seven years older, was as a sister to him—repaying to Gwynne a self-sacrificing service that, into her 30s, she had provided his mother Grace.

When Mel’s wife Mary Ann become ill with a rapidly advancing form of dementia in the mid-2000s, he provided years of support at home before she finally transferred to Fair Haven—where he continued to attend and feed her, providing consistent, attentive, loving care. After Mary Ann’s passing in 2014, Mel spent several years on the Fair Haven Homes Society planning committee for two long term care facility redevelopments in Vancouver and Burnaby—sharing over 80 years of personal and professional experience in a debt of gratitude for an institution that so benefited Mary Ann in her final years.

Dad took great pride in our cherished family home on Neville Street, and spent nearly every weekend in some sort of meticulous, loving upkeep. There was nothing he could not build or mend, including his relationships. He shuttled his family, annually and religiously, to three familiar haunts: Spring Breaks at the Royal Scott Inn in Victoria, summers to the Okanagan to collect fruit for canning, and the Ebb Tide Inn in Seaside, Oregon. His engineering prowess allowed him to contain, what appeared upon unloading, to have been the entire contents of the house into the trunk of whichever trusty Oldsmobile was currently in circulation. A methodical planner, he secured his reservations for the exact same hotel rooms upon leaving—a year in advance—creating the comforting and familiar sensation of family vacation homes in three other cities.

He treasured seasonal events with his family—and in particular, his love for Christmas cannot be overstated: it was truly legendary. He shone with a childlike, but meticulous, enthusiasm, and our family home dazzled with the season earlier, brighter, and longer than any of our neighbours—and without a hint of competition. This was a time for family to connect, relax, celebrate, and reflect; it was without question the most meaningful annual event in his heart. Family, together.

Dad was a man who led by example, but also carried more than a few poignant words of folksy wisdom at the ready. He lived by three simple maxims: always do what you believe to be right, do all things to best of your ability—and just try to have fun along the way. Possessed of unimpeachable character, modesty, and a piercing gaze (as necessary), he would not be bullied or coerced, and his aura of higher calling was palpable. He spoke softly, viewed the world through the kindest of eyes, and he was gifted with a boundless generosity, a wry wit, and a steely, quiet resolve.

His loss will be felt by many—but his memory and influence will remain a gift to us all.

Mel is survived by his three sons, Leigh, Scott, and Todd; his daughter-in-law, Debra; his three grandchildren, Nolan & Trent (Leigh) and Evan (Todd); and his devoted longtime caregiver, Cora. He is predeceased by his wife, Mary Ann, and daughter, Maurya; his Aunt Gwynne; and a great many other beloved family members.

A Celebration of Mel’s Life will be held November 24, 2025, at 1:00 PM, at the Shadbolt Centre For the Arts, in Burnaby, British Columbia. A burial service for family will occur immediately prior at Forest Lawn. For those of you unable to attend in person you can log in for a live streaming at: www.legacystreaming.com/martin-brothers/

 In lieu of flowers, please consider a gift to the Alzheimer’s Society of British Columbia.

“watch your words from day-to-day, keep them soft and sweet;
you never know, in the end, which ones you’ll have to eat.”
—————————————————————————————————————————
—————————————————————————————————————————