- Date Of Birth: February 18, 1935
- Date Of Death: March 30, 2021
- City: Hollsopple
- State: Florida
Leonard Shetler (86), originally of Hollsopple, PA and later of Stowe, VT and Crescent City, FL died on March 30 in Daytona Beach, Florida after a brief illness. Known to his friends as “Len,” he was born to a Mennonite bishop, Sanford Shetler, and wife Florence (Young) Shetler in Hollsopple, PA on February 18, 1935. Len was raised in the Mennonite community, with his older brother, Stanwyn, and three sisters: Maretta, Anita, and Carol. During his early years, he traveled with his family around the US, including working on a farm near his grandmother’s home in Antelope, MT, and attended a year of high school in Oregon, forming friendships that lasted a lifetime. He attended Eastern Mennonite College and the University of Pittsburgh-Johnstown. Len loved to sing and performed extensively around the U.S. as a baritone in both high school and college quartets.
His deep faith led him to be a conscientious objector during the Korean War. He served his country in alternate service at a mental hospital in Norristown, PA, where he met his future wife, nursing student Ruth (Ruthie) Hubbell. Len and Ruthie married in 1958 and lived in Philadelphia until the call of the mountains led them to Vermont in 1964. An adventurous spirit, youthful boldness, and blind luck led Len into the office of Sepp Ruschp at the Mt. Mansfield Company in Stowe, where Len was hired on the spot to manage the Toll House Inn. During the six years Len and Ruthie worked there, they were joined by Ruthie’s aunt Grace Dolan (“Auntie” to everyone) and daughter Meghan who was born in 1969.
Later that year they bought the Logwood Inn on Edson Hill from the original owners, Chuck and Janet Savage. In the early ‘70s Len’s sister and life-long confidant Maretta, her husband Alan Hostetler, and three sons Greg, Terry, and Andy moved to Vermont to help run the inn, and to raise their families together. Meghan and Len’s nephews all started their first jobs as soon as they could wash a dish. Andy and Meghan were raised as close as siblings, the two constantly inventing ways to “entertain” the guests and traveling together on family vacations. All under the watchful eye of Auntie. For 21 years Len & Ruthie worked side-by-side growing the Inn, acting as surrogate parents to countless beloved ski bums, welcoming thousands of guests who quickly became treasured friends, and even hosting his sister’s wedding to David Towers in 1989.
Along the way, Len served on the Stowe Area Association Board of Trustees, the Stowe Tennis Tournament, and Oktoberfest. He spent countless days on the mountain, in the Stowe ski bum race, leading cross-country ski treks with friends, summer tennis nights, and more cookouts than anyone could count. Despite his Mennonite upbringing, Len would often attend mass at the Blessed Sacrament Catholic Church, possibly because he noticed it often snowed on days he attended. But the golf course was his absolute favorite place to be. Len was a fixture at the Stowe Country Club and he played in decades of Kirkwood tournaments and later developed the L.I.G.H.T.S (Logwood Invitational Golf and Happy Times Shenanigans) weekend to celebrate with great friends and golf buddies. Len and Ruthie ran Logwood as a family until they sold it in 1990, just a week before Ruthie passed away after a long battle with cancer.
Len found himself retired, widowed and an empty nester all at once. Always up for an adventure, he bought an RV and headed to Florida and then on a cross-country trip to visit high school friends in Oregon. In January 1994 he met Sheila Dauphinee Effer, and they married that same year. Together they spent a few years running a motel and cabin rental in Rhode Island and working as house parents at a group home in Maine.
Eventually, Len and Sheila returned to Florida and settled in a quiet little hamlet on the St. John’s River near Crescent City. There were many happy years welcoming their grandkids to their home, summers in Vermont with daughter Meghan and her family, and teaching both Sheila and his stepdaughter Lynn to play golf. Central to Len’s life was his faith in God. He was an active member of the First Presbyterian Church in Palatka. He also volunteered regularly at the food pantry at the South Putnam Christian Service Center.
Len and Sheila were active members of the Oaks Golf Course until Sheila could no longer play due to Alzheimer’s Disease. The golf course became his place of happiness and solace as he cared for Sheila until her death in 2013, and continued to be a place of support and comfort right up until a few weeks before his death.
Len is survived by his daughter Meghan Reichelt and grandsons Alex and Evan; his son-in-law Kurt Reichelt; his stepdaughter Lynn Effer and her daughters Lauren Long and Lacey Telfeyan, his stepson Brian Effer and his family; sister Maretta Hostetler and her husband Dave Towers; sister Carol Lazer and husband John, and many nieces and nephews and countless cherished friends.
He is predeceased by his wife Ruth Hubbell Shetler, wife Sheila Dauphinee Shetler, parents, Sanford and Florence Shetler, brother Stanwyn G. Shelter, and sister Anita Schoenthal.
