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Unforgettable Fire: Remembering Sam Shelton and his Olympic Torch
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Earlier this week, I was sitting in Midtown traffic, slammed on Peachtree, gazing skyward through my SUV sunroof, surrounded, shrouded by glimmering glass, and towering buildings with thoughts of the 1996 Centennial Olympic Games. None of the construction or maddening traffic were present then. We are weeks away from the 30th anniversary of the Atlanta games. Midtown development had barely begun.
Ironically, my phone buzzed with a text from Jane Walker Stoner of the Georgia Tech Alumni Association. "Hey Jeff, how are you doing? Did you know Sam Shelton (GT retired professor)? He died last night at 87; I saw him last week.”
The intellect and talent of Professor Sam Shelton PH.D. had an enormous impact on Atlanta and the games. Like so many local men and women from decades ago, the Shelton contribution has been lost to time, his name in death will not be universally recognized by those who witnessed his work.
“They (Atlanta Committee for the Olympic Games) asked if I would design, engineer and produce the relay torches. I said, yes.”
Professor Sam Shelton PH.D. was the founding director of the Georgia Tech Strategic Energy Institute. Its purpose was to facilitate near-term, high-impact solutions to national and regional energy challenges. As a professor for 35 years, he developed in-class and web delivered undergraduate, graduate level energy technology courses, and of course the 1996 Olympic torch design.
“The primary requirement was to carry the flame and not let it go out, through wind, snow, rain, sleet, no matter what,” said Professor Shelton PH.D. He told Georgia Tech in an interview from 2016, “the torch relay would be 15,000 miles long, with 15,000 torch bearers.
The Stone Mountain resident, husband and father soon realized the torch project was much more complex than he bargained, involving many engineering elements.
“The ultimate test, I took it home, put it in the shower to see if it would stay lit—-it did.”
As part of the torch journey across America in 1996, was the trek up 15,000-foot Pikes Peak in Colorado via horseback.
“Once we came up with a prototype, we had to figure out how to manufacture 17,000 torches with about 21 different parts, each involved a different manufacturer, there was no one who said they couldn’t do it.”
Professor Shelton PH.D. was a brilliant man who amassed $30 million in funding for his work. He held eight patents in sustainable energy technologies and founded two companies developing, manufacturing and marketing energy-efficient products. Starting in the 1980s, he was among the pioneer's developing commercialization of solar power, and a much-loved, respected educator by his Georgia Tech students.
Leland Strange met Shelton in 1959 when he came from Dallas, Texas to Atlanta, entering GT as a freshman.
"Sam (Shelton) was a junior and we met at the GT Baptist Student Union (BSU) where he was assigned to me as upperclassman "prayer partner".
The two men remained friends after GT, and years later, Mr. Strange helped fund some of the innovative energy companies Professor Shelton PH.D. founded.
"Sam was unique in that he had an entrepreneurial, engineer, and scientific mind rolled into one. At another point, I provided some space in a building where he and two other junior engineers developed the internals of the Olympic torch. They jury rigged a mechanical jogger in front of fans to see if the flame would sustain that environment as well as many other contraptions to test the flame."
GT alum Bill Bulpitt a mechanical engineering graduate with a bachelor's degree in 1970 and a master's in 1972 had Professor Shelton PH.D. for undergraduate courses, and then as his faculty advisor for graduate school.
He was emotional in a conversation with me discussing his teacher, faculty advisor, and friend.
“I knew Sam Shelton for 58 years, and while there were some periods we would not see each other often, we always kept in touch. He had a great positive influence on my life and career, and I am going to miss him greatly, as will many others who knew him as a very intelligent friend.”
Mr. Bulpitt also told me, "I had a visit from Sam's daughter Stacy, she gave a torch that her father left for me. To say I was thrilled would be an understatement."
Mr. Bulpitt will speak at the August 1st, Shelton Memorial Service.
For all of Professor Shelton’s remarkable accomplishments, his Olympic invention always held special meaning. “The torch” said Shelton “was a symbol of world peace, mankind uniting, coming together, overcoming adversity. The 1996 games were an amazing event to think about, to live through, to be a part of helping create it.”
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