[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 154 (2008), Part 5]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page 6795]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                          TRIBUTE TO JOE SHELL

                                 ______
                                 

                          HON. KEVIN McCARTHY

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                       Wednesday, April 23, 2008

  Mr. McCARTHY of California. Madam Speaker, I rise today along with my 
colleague from California, Congressman Jim Costa, to honor Joseph 
Claude Shell, a longtime Bakersfield political and community leader, 
who passed away on Monday, April 7, 2008, at the age of 89.
  Joe was born in La Conner, Washington in 1918 and moved with his 
family to San Diego at the age of 2. Joe attended the University of 
Southern California and played 3 years of varsity football, which 
included two trips to the Rose Bowl, and being the captain of the 
undefeated 1939 team. While Joe was studying law at USC, he served his 
country during World War II as a civilian flight instructor (having 
learned to fly at the age of 14) for the U.S. Army Air Corps at Cal 
Aero and Lancaster from 1942-1943, and eventually joined the Navy in 
1944 serving as a senior pilot in the air transport service.
  After the war, Joe lived in Los Angeles and worked in the Kern County 
oil fields as an independent oil producer and drilled many of the wells 
around Bakersfield. In 1953, Joe won election to the California State 
Assembly, representing the 58th District, which covered the Wilshire 
district of Los Angeles. A major political figure in California 
politics, he served for a decade in the State legislature, 4 of those 
years as the Assembly Republican Leader, fighting for free enterprise, 
low taxes, and limited government. During his time in the Assembly, Joe 
authored the State Scholarship Act, which gave thousands of young 
people educational opportunities at public and private universities. 
While in the Assembly, he met Mary K. Husking, who he married in 1970. 
In 1962, Joe ran for governor and though he did not win the Republican 
nomination, he remained active in State and local politics. Joe and 
Mary K. returned to the oil business and drilled wells in the Deer 
Creek area, near Porterville. In 1989, Governor George Deukmejian 
appointed Joe to the California Agricultural Labor Relations Board, 
where he served for several years before stepping down.
  Joe's death is a great loss for the Bakersfield community, but he 
will always be remembered for his years of service in the U.S. Armed 
Forces and California State Assembly, always leading by principle 
rather than rhetoric, and for his integrity and interest in seeing 
government perform honestly and with accountability at all levels. Joe 
is survived by his wife, of 38 years, Mary K. who currently resides in 
Bakersfield, and his children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren 
Barbara, Joe, Jr., David, Harold, Diane, Lynn, Geoffrey, Robert, 
Steven, Stacey, Brian, Dana, Ryan, Nicole, Emily, Jennifer, Matthew, 
Mark, Justin, Ellie, and Thomas.

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