Joe Shell - Early Years

Early Years

Shell was born in tiny La Conner in Skagit County in northwestern Washington, to Joseph Lieb Shell and the former Nell Schunemann. The senior Shell was an Indian agent for the United States Department of Interior in Washington State. When Joe was two years old, his family moved to San Diego, where his father was a municipal and then superior court judge, and his mother was a homemaker. He also had a sister, Cheryl. Shell graduated from Herbert Hoover High School in San Diego, where he was senior class president and a key football player. One of his Hoover classmates was baseball superstar Ted Williams. Shell was recruited by the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland, and Stanford University in Palo Alto, but instead he chose to attend the University of Southern California in Los Angeles. In 1940, he procured his Bachelor of Science degree in business administration.