Childhood pals return to Shadle area where they met in ‘63

The buddies: Joe Shogan, 61, Spokane City Council president, and Robert “Bob” Shelton, 61, president of the University of Arizona, lived on the same block during high school and became best friends.

Shogan went to Gonzaga Prep; Shelton to Shadle Park High School. The teen-year buddies have remained in touch through five decades, despite the geographical distance between them.

Shogan settled in Spokane. Shelton lived in different college towns as his academic administration career took off.

They reunited last month when Shelton traveled to Spokane for the dedication of the new Shadle Park High School. The two childhood buddies walked their old neighborhood and reminisced.

The neighborhood: The North 4800 block of Greenwood Boulevard on Spokane’s North Side.

How they met: Shogan had lived there since 1955, when his parents bought their house. Shelton moved to the neighborhood from Phoenix the summer between his freshman and sophomore year.

The year: 1963. Their ages: 14.

“I was out there trying to mow this slope (of lawn) with an electric mower and suddenly Joe and two of his friends came over and introduced themselves,” Shelton remembered. “I realized I was in a great neighborhood.”

“Mom said we had to go be nice to him,” Shogan said.

Life in the neighborhood: There were pick-up baseball and basketball games at nearby Browne Elementary School, and sledding on surrounding hilly treets.

Also plenty of buddies: At least 30 other children and teens lived on the same block.

Shogan introduced Shelton to girls from Marycliff and Holy Names, the all-girl Catholic schools that socialized with Gonzaga Prep.

Shelton, in turn, introduced Shogan to Shadle girls.

“Remember the beetle-shaped Ford that Dave Coleman had that we worked on?” Shelton asked Shogan. “I didn’t have a clue what we were doing.

“Somebody would say ‘hand me a wrench’ and I’d hand over a wrench. Then we’d all pile in and go to the drive-in for dollar-per-car night.”

How the neighborhood has changed: The trees and bushes have grown taller, thicker. A few of the homes look ill-kept.

Fifty years ago, the homes on the block were all relatively new and in good shape. The neighborhood was filled on summer days with children and teens walking, playing in yards, riding bikes.

As Shogan and Shelton walked the neighborhood two weeks ago, no children were in evidence, though it was still summer vacation and gorgeous outside. A chorus of dogs, however, barked from fenced back yards.

How the neighborhood has remained the same: Greenwood Boulevard was always a street of socioeconomic extremes, with expensive, bigger homes nestled next to modest, post-World War II homes.

Life after the ’hood: Shelton and Shogan graduated from high school in 1966. The youth revolution of the 1960s was in full protest gear as they entered their freshman year in college.

To prepare for Stanford University, Shelton was required to read a collection of essays titled “Beyond Berkeley.”

The day student protesters were shot at Kent State, Shogan – on an ROTC scholarship to Gonzaga University – had to wear his uniform to classes because it was inspection day.

“I really felt like a stranger on my own campus that day,” he said.

Shogan served in Vietnam, became a lawyer and has served on the City Council for almost seven years.

Shelton, a physics major in college, taught, researched and published in physics for more than a decade before being tapped for college leadership.

He was vice chancellor and vice provost for research at University of California-Davis, then executive vice chancellor and provost at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill.

He assumed the top spot in 2006 at the University of Arizona in Tucson, a school of 36,000 students and 11,000 employees.

What they miss about the neighborhood: Shelton: Lying on the grassy slope of his front lawn on summer nights, looking up to the sky.

Shogan: Having a great time with friends, despite no one having much money.

Both men miss their parents, all now deceased.

Their lifelong connection: When Shelton married Adrian, a Stanford classmate, 41 years ago, Shogan was his best man.

Shelton drove Shogan to Travis Air Force Base in California to catch the transport plane to Vietnam in 1971. He and Adrian greeted Shogan’s flight home from Vietnam 10 months later.

Shogan and his wife of 32 years, Maureen, meet up every two to three years with the Sheltons.

Lifelong lessons learned in the neighborhood:

Shelton: “The most important thing coming out of the magnificent neighborhood was how to interact with different personalities.

“We had kids who went to different schools. You had the intense rivalries of the schools, but then when you were back in the neighborhood, you were friends.

“How do I use that now at University of Arizona? I need to be a spokesperson, not only for the sciences, but for our poetry center, for our dance program, for our psych program, for anthropology and hydrology, for medical professions. What you do is listen a lot.”

Shogan: “Neighbors helped neighbors in that block. Everybody helped everyone finish their basements. I learned loyalty and friendship in that community.”