James John Shea

James John Shea MD, devoted husband, loving father of seven children and fourteen grandchildren, passed away on August 31st at the age of 87. Jim was born February 5th, 1932 and raised in Leavenworth, Kansas. He attended Creighton University in Omaha, Nebraska and graduated from the School of Medicine in 1957. During medical school, Jim met the love of his life, Sheila Tobin from Mitchell, South Dakota, who was attending Duchesne College and the Saint Joseph School of Nursing. They married in 1959 and spent the next four years in Germany while Jim served as a medical officer in the US Army before doing his residency in anesthesiology at the University of Minnesota. They next moved to Great Falls, Montana before settling in Visalia, California to raise their seven children. Jim and Sheila instilled in all their children a love of learning and commitment of service to others. This legacy produced a college professor, a nurse, two doctors, a business owner, Navy SEAL officer and a school psychologist. After Sheila passed away in 1998, Doctor Shea retired and resettled in San Luis Obispo and became an active member of Mission San Luis Obispo de Tolosa. Jim was a principled man of faith and had many passions and interests. A lifelong learner, voracious reader, lover of history, politics and culture. He was an avid fly fisherman and outdoorsman who shared his love of nature with his children and grandkids always saying, “God paints with a lavish brush.” Jim was a self-made man who never forgot his humble roots, and lived by the “Golden Rule.” Jim was a generous man who believed when God provides you with an abundance of ability, time or treasure, you have a moral obligation to give back. He established the Sheila and James J. Shea Family Endowed Chair in Anesthesiology at Creighton University in 2006. James John Shea embodied the sentiment, “the heart of an Irishman is nothing but his imagination.” He is preceded in death by his parents, James John and Mary Grace Shea, his sister, Mary Terese Shea, and his loving wife, Sheila. He is survived by his seven children, Marybeth, Patricia, Kevin, Owen, Brian, Daniel and Shana and fourteen grandchildren. A 9am Rosary followed by a 10 am Mass of Christian Burial will be held August 16th at the Mission San Luis Obispo de Tolosa followed by a December Memorial Mass and Graveside Internment at the Good Shepard Catholic Parish in Visalia, CA where he will be reunited with his wife. Flowers and donations can be made to Mission San Luis Obispo de Tolosa or your local church.

James John Shea

February 5, 1932 - July 31, 2019