Gertrude (Gwin) Coffin Shelton died April 18, in Claremont, Calif. within three weeks of her 96th birthday.

 

Mrs. Shelton was born on May 5, 1913, to Winthrop and Gertrude Coffin and grew up in Brookline and Duxbury.  Her parents bought their house in Duxbury on King Caesar Road in 1915, then relocated and rebuilt the authentic “Salt-box” house across the street in the 1920’s.  Winthrop Coffin was one of the original investors who saved the Duxbury Beach from commercial development.

Mrs. Shelton attended the Beaver Country Day School in Brookline from 1922 to 1931.  Sailing in Duxbury Bay was one of her passions and she became the Massachusetts Girls’ Sailing Champion at age 15 as well as captain of the Duxbury Junior Yacht Club Crew.  She attended Vassar College and majored in geology, graduating in 1935.  An accomplished flutist, while at Vassar she studied with the principal flutist of the New York Philharmonic and performed in chamber music with Vassar faculty.   At the summertime Surrette School of Music in Concord, she met her husband, John S. Shelton.  They were married in 1937 and lived in New Haven, Conn.  In 1941 they moved to Claremont, Calif. where Mr. Shelton became a professor of geology at Pomona College.  Mrs. Shelton settled here, but continued to drive across country to spend summers in Duxbury until she was 87.

Mrs. Shelton helped found Foothill Country Day School and the Vivian Webb School for Girls.  She served as a Trustee on the Board of Governors for the Webb schools.   She was involved in the American Field Service foreign exchange program, holding numerous positions including western area representative for the U. S. and international trustee.  In the 1960’s she helped found and operate the first local Planned Parenthood Clinic.  She took various art classes and her  abstract watercolors won awards in local art shows in Pomona and Duxbury.  She served as the president of the Scripps College Fine Arts Foundation from 1981 to 1983.

Mrs. Shelton leaves her sons, Jay Shelton and David Shelton; her daughters, Nancy Nylander, Heidi Lynch, and Lucy Shelton; ten grandchildren and six great-grandchildren.  She was preceded in death by her former husband, John Shelton of La Jolla, Calif.; her brother, Winthrop Coffin of Duxbury; and her sister, Hannah Coffin Smith of West Hartford, Conn.

Memorial contributions may be made to the Scripps College Fine Arts Foundation, 1030 Columbia Ave., Claremont CA 91711, or to Planned Parenthood.