When Norm Ely, a young Marine from Connecticut, met Doris McClure, a nursing student from Georgia, he had actually arrived at her Montgomery AL school dormitory for a date with another young woman.  “Love at first sight” certainly applied to that meeting, for five months later they were married on the day he was discharged from the Corps.  “Obviously it was not a ‘slip knot,’” Norm observes, for in January of 2006 this devoted couple celebrated their fiftieth wedding anniversary.

Doris was born and raised in the mountains of north Georgia, in a rural neighborhood where everyone seemed to be related by birth or marriage.  Her education began in a one-room schoolhouse to which she walked a long distance in fair or inclement weather.  Her three brothers all entered military service, and the youngest, a Marine, was killed in Vietnam.  The second of four daughters, Doris was the only one of the siblings to seek a higher education.  She received a nursing school diploma from St. Margaret’s Hospital School of Nursing in Montgomery and eventually spent thirty-five years as an RN, mostly in obstetrics and particularly in labor and delivery rooms.

The second of four boys, Norm spent his childhood in lower Connecticut, close to the New York line.  All but one of his brothers served in the military, and he served in the Marines.  With the help of the G.I. Bill, Norm earned a degree in business administration from the University of Hartford.  After graduation he began working for the Hartford Insurance Company as an accountant in their Hartford CT office. Job transfers followed his promotion to supervisor, and the couple subsequently lived in Manchester CT, Williamsville NY and Marlton NJ.

While living on the east coast, Norm and Doris indulged their common interest in Civil War history by visiting many battlefields where their ancestors had fought—of course on opposite sides in the conflict.  While researching family connections Norm discovered that his great-grandfather had survived internment in the infamous Andersonville GA POW camp, only to be killed en route home when the steamship Sultana exploded near Memphis—a worse disaster than the sinking of the Titanic.  Norm has traced more fortunate ancestors for ten generations back to England, discovering that many had served as pastors and deacons in the United States.  (Only one contemporary relative, a cousin’s son who currently is the Episcopalian Bishop of Vermont, has continued the ecclesiastical ties.)

Meanwhile the Elys’ son John had graduated from Colgate University and earned a law degree from the University of Denver.  He began working in the district attorney’s office in Glenwood Springs.  Subsequently he has become the Pitkin County Attorney.  Like so many others contemplating retirement, the Elys felt the pull of family ties in their decision to move to the Roaring Fork Valley.  Doris wanted to continue nursing for a while, and there was a tempting job opening at Valley View Hospital as well.

They moved to Oak Meadows in 1990 and shortly thereafter discovered the 100 Club, in which they have been active ever since, Doris in hiking and snowshoeing activities and Norm in skiing as well.  Through the years Norm has been an avid photographer on the trail, known for presenting to his subjects, at the end of the hiking season, numerous photographs no one was aware he had taken!

Both Norm and Doris enjoy reading and they have continued their interest in genealogy.  Their dream is someday to travel to the British Isles, where Norm wants to visit the Ely Cathedral, and Doris would search for some of her roots in Ireland.  No resume of their retirement activities would be complete without mention of their grandchildren Michael and Julia, with whom they enjoy many cultural events and excursions.  Before she retired Doris was privileged to be the labor and delivery room nurse at their births. 

Norm quips:  “Whoever said that in retirement you will have more time on your hands must have said it before he retired.”  He used to have time not only to be a “jack-of-many-trades” around his own house, but to help other 100 Club members remodel, repair and paint their homes.  Now, however, he says that most of his “service calls” come from one of the kids:  “Come quick, Grandpa.  I just broke it, and I know you can fix it!”

by Doris Lee Shettel