SHELBYVILLE, IL. — James Lowell Goleman

Shelbyville



James Lowell Goleman, 88, of Shelbyville, died at 6:17 p.m. Thursday, September 2, 2010 in his residence.

 Funeral services will be held at 10:00 a.m. Monday, September 6, 2010 in the First United Methodist Church of Shelbyville.  Visitation from 4:00-8:00 p.m. Sunday  and 9:00-9:45 a.m. Monday in Howe and Yockey Funeral Home, Shelbyville.  Burial will be in Glenwood Cemetery, Shelbyville, IL with military rites by the Shelby County Honor Guard.  Memorials may be given to Lincolnland Hospice, Love the Child Guatemalan Orphanage or donor’s choice.

 Mr. Goleman was born and grew up in Oakland (Coles Co.) Illinois, with four brothers, the son of a Baptist minister, Rev. John Leslie and Viola Violet Bare Goleman.  He attended elementary and high school in Oakland (population 1,000). While a freshman at the University of Illinois, Japan attacked Pearl Harbor.  His oldest brother was in the Navy at Pearl Harbor at the time of the attack and another brother was also serving in the Navy.  Lowell finished his first year at the university and then enlisted in the Naval Air Force.  After a year of training, he had an opportunity to transfer to the Army Air Force with a newly developed radar unit designed primarily to bomb Tokyo from high altitudes.  He spent the next three years with B -29 Bombers on the Pacific Islands of Guam, Tinian and Saipan.

 He came home in 1946 and finished his schooling at Eastern Illinois University in Charleston.  He then attended Bradley University in Peoria, where he received a Masters Degree in Industrial Engineering. He went to work for Caterpillar Tractor Company in Peoria for a short time.  He had just married Wilma Irene Plowman of Lakewood, IL, on September 22, 1949 in Robinson, Illinois, so he came to Shelbyville and went to work for the Oliver Farm Machinery Company.  The Oliver Company closed in 1968 due to consolidation of the White Motor Company.

 In the meantime the Goleman family in Shelbyville had now grown to six,  Lowell, Wilma and four daughters (Loma, Marla, Suzanne and Sarah), with the closing of the Shelbyville Plant, he was scheduled to transfer to Brantford Ontario, Canada.  He had to make a rather quick and difficult decision.  He had worked up to the position of Manager of Manufacturing at the Oliver Plant, but on the other hand he didn’t relish the idea of moving his family to Canada.

 The family stayed in Shelbyville where Lowell became more and more active in community affairs such as the Chamber of Commerce (5yrs.), School Board (9 yrs.), organized and directed a Youth Center (12 yrs.), Crusade Chairman for the American Cancer Society (15 county area for 5 yrs.), United Way Chairman of Shelby County (3 yrs.) Hour House Board (Drug & Alcohol Rehabilitation Center of East-Central Illinois for 18 yrs.) and Board of Shelby County Community Services (14 yrs.).

  He closed out his industrial career in 1989 (after 37 yrs.) retiring from Manager of Engineering Services at the Bondware Company in Shelbyville.  He then served as Mayor of the City of Shelbyville for ten years at which time a mini-park, a new track at the high school, new welcome signs to the city and Heinlein Drive extension were built and a memorial to Mrs. Cochran for her dishwasher invention and an eternal flame for the Veterans Monument across from the Shelby County Courthouse were accomplished. Lowell was a member of the First United Methodist Church of Shelbyville.

 Surviving are his wife, Wilma; daughters, Loma Roley and husband Richard of Shelbyville, IL, Marla Pick and husband Michael of Springfield, IL, Sarah Goleman of Ottawa, IL and Christine Bullock Dilk and husband Mic of Fishers, IN; grandchildren, Kurt Roley (Thalia), Craig Roley (Amber), Morgan Pick, Rachel Havey Millburg (Steve), Adam Havey, Kate Havey, Jeffrey Rainey (Chayna), Connor Dilk and Jonathan Dilk; and eight great grandchildren.

 He was preceded in death by his parents; daughter, Suzanne Goleman Havey; great grandson, Heath Tyler Roley; and four brothers, Aubrey Leo Goleman, Denzil Lyle Goleman, Robert Stevens and Ernie Stevens.

Send condolences to www.howeandyockey.com.