John D. "Jack" Shelley papers

Collection — Multiple Containers

Identifier: RS 13/13/55

Staff Only

Scope and Content

The materials from Shelley’s time as a war correspondent in World War II comprise the majority of this collection. It includes biographical information and personal memorabilia from his travels as a war correspondent, radio broadcast scripts, war documents, cablegrams, news releases and clippings, personal accounts and reports of events witnessed, family correspondence, photographs, and audio recordings on reel to reel, cassette tape, and VHS video tape.

Audio reel to reel tapes have been digitally transferred to compact disc for listening, Disc 004 336, #s 1-12. The use of boxes 9-13 has been restricted due to the brittleness of the original paper. These files have been photocopied and provided for viewing in folders 1-5.

Dates

Creation: 1944-2011, undated

Access Restrictions

Original in boxes 9-13 restricted due to brittle paper condition, use copies in boxes 1-5.

Use/Re-use Restrictions

Consult Special Collections and University Archives

Biography/Profile

John D. "Jack" Shelley was born in Boone, Iowa, on March 8, 1912. He graduated from Boone High School (1929), and earned a Bachelor of Journalism degree (1935) from the University of Missouri at Columbia.

After a short stay with the Iowa Herald in Clinton, Iowa, Shelley went to work for WHO radio (1935) in Des Moines, Iowa. He was assistant news director for five years, then became news director for both radio and television until he left in 1965. Shelley was a war correspondent (1944-1945) in Europe and the Pacific covering World War II. He interviewed hundreds of combat soldiers in both theaters. Shelley recorded one of the first broadcast interviews with crew members of the airplanes that dropped the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan. He was aboard the battleship U.S.S. Missouri in Tokyo Bay to cover the Allies’ acceptance of the unconditional Japanese surrender, and was one of twenty reporters chosen to cover the atomic bomb tests at Yucca Flats, Nevada (1953). The tape recorder Shelley took along to record the event was one of the few to withstand the shock of the blast.

Mr. Shelley joined Iowa State University as an Associate Professor of Journalism (1965), then served as Professor (1969) until his retirement (1982). Iowa State University honored him for his academic contributions with an Outstanding Teacher Award and a Faculty Citation from the Iowa State University Alumni Association (1982).

Jack Shelley helped found the Iowa Broadcast News Association, an organization that honored him by establishing the Jack Shelley Award (1971). He is a past president of the International Radio-Television News Directors Association, which he helped found, and of the Associated Press Radio and Television Association. He was president of the Iowa Freedom of Information Council (1981) and a member of a committee appointed by the Iowa Supreme Court to advise it on the use of cameras and tape recorders in court trials. He received the Broadcaster of the Year Award (1980) from the Iowa Broadcasters Association. Shelley died September 14, 2010.