Joe Nelson Shuffield

March 31, 1942 - October 16, 2019

Joe Nelson Shuffield, 77, devoted husband and family man, adventurer, practical joker, and all-around ornery cuss, passed away peacefully in his home on October 16, 2019 from natural causes. Joe was an expert storyteller, and used his own invented words and phrases, along with hilarious and startling sound effects, to keep his friends and family in stitches. He was always a free spirit, and the moment he was born in San Antonio on March 31, 1942, his older brother James must’ve known he was going to be a handful, because just days after Joe arrived, James set a fire under the house and tried to burn it down. Fortunately, both Joe and the house survived. As a young boy he had a precocious talent for learning things on his own, often the hard way. Ever interested in firearms, explosions, and adventure, he decided to make his own gunpowder, and to his surprise and the consternation of his parents, Albert Nelson and Emma Esther Shuffield, he succeeded, with explosive results. Joe’s lifelong love for hunting and other outdoor sports began at an early age. When he was about six, and his family was living in Austin, he and a friend chased a squirrel they were hunting into an old dead tree and decided they would smoke it out. The tree went up in flames, the squirrel escaped unharmed, and the fire quickly spread to a footbridge spanning a nearby creek, which bears the marks of their adventure to this day. Since then, Joe has continued to hunt all kinds of critters with family and friends; most recently, he bagged a 300-pound wild hog. When he was still a teenager, Joe fibbed about his age so he could join the army. With his mother’s reluctant blessing, he soon found himself in Korea, guarding the DMZ, the border between North and South Korea (Company C, 2nd Medium Tank Battalion, 40th Armored, assigned to the 7th Infantry Division). He often traded cigarettes with the North Korean guard, and once, when a few shots fired from the North Korean side caused all his buddies to flee, Joe remained and emptied an entire belt into the bushes on the North Korean side, prompting his commanding officer to appear and ask him to please refrain from starting World War III if he could. After his military service, Joe returned to Austin. There, he met the love of his life, Frances Lillian Mills Pelham, while working at the Travis County Tax Office. They married on May 20, 1966, and later that year moved to Midland with Frances’s two children, Diana Marie and Marcus Lee (Mark) Pelham. A year later, Joe and Frances had their third child, Joseph Nelson Jr. In Midland, Joe first worked for the city tax office, and in 1977 he was hired by Tom Ingram, owner of Lone Star Abstract and Title Company, to work in their title division. Joe was soon managing the title plant, and he was respected throughout the industry as a methodical and accurate title researcher. His co-workers knew him to be a fiercely loyal friend who treated his team as a family, and who always kept everyone smiling with his pranks and stories. Joe eventually became a vice president of the company, retiring in 2007 after 30 years of service. Joe and Frances loved escaping to the mountains of Cloudcroft, New Mexico, where they built a cabin, which became the scene of many family adventures. He took an active role in all his children’s lives, whether camping with Joseph Jr.’s scout troop and attending his concerts, taking his grandson Russell on vacations all over the country, or participating in Civil War reenactments with Mark and his sons, Joshua and Jacob. Joe and Frances were active members of Holy Cross Lutheran Church in Midland, and he enjoyed attending the weekly Men’s Bible Study group. Joe is preceded in death by his wife, Frances, his parents, Albert and Emma, and his brother James, sister-in-law Jean, and his brothers-in-law, Bill Parks, Bob Hejl, and Wilburn Long. His surviving family members include his sisters Bonnell Parks, Kathlyn Long, and Mary Esther Hejl; his children Diana and Richard Huntington, Mark and Debra Pelham, and Joseph Shuffield and Jason Gomez; his grandchildren, Russell and Christi Huntington, Joshua and Jacob Pelham; and great-grandchildren Madeline, Alaina, and Tyler Huntington. Please join us in a celebration of Joe’s life on Tuesday, October 22, 2019 at 1:00 pm at Nalley-Pickle & Welch Funeral Home, 3800 N. Big Spring, Midland, TX. Family and friends are also invited to visiting hours from 6:00 to 8:00 pm, Monday, October 21, 2019 at Nalley-Pickle & Welch Funeral Home. In lieu of flowers, please send donations to the Wounded Warrior Project at www.woundedwarriorproject.org or 1 South Nevada AVE, STE 205, Colorado Springs, CO 80903.