Sheldon Keilson

Sheldon was born in Brooklyn in 1927, and for his entire life he thought that Brooklyn was the best place in the world to live, even after he moved to Baltimore to be closer to his children. He never forgave the Dodgers moving from Brooklyn. From his earliest years he knew he wanted to study electrical engineering, and ended up spending his career in the field, first as an engineer with the Redstone Rocket program, then in the defense industry, and finally with the New York phone company. He enlisted in the Navy while still in high school, during World War Two, and entered the service in 1944 immediately after graduating high school. He went to basic training in Michigan, was posted to Treasure Island near San Francisco, and was scheduled to ship out for the invasion of Japan before the war ended. He was a very smart, logical, and consistent person, who always tried to do the right thing, loved his family, made the effort to stay in touch with friends and cousins for his entire life.