Sam died Jan. 7, 2021, of complications from a stroke in Bethesda, Md.

Sam, known as Ainslie to family and close friends, was born Sept. 3, 1934, in Dallas, Texas. He matriculated to Princeton in 1952 having never seen the campus. A member of the men’s varsity golf team, he dined at Elm. He majored in English and wrote his thesis on Jane Austen. After Southwestern Medical School, he had a long and distinguished career as a pediatric neurologist.

In 1976 he moved to Washington, D.C., where he spent the majority of his career as the chief of the division of child neurology at Children’s National Medical Center. Two of his children attended Princeton, and it brought Sam great joy to return with them to campus for graduations and Reunions. Above all, Sam was a devoted family man. Called “Big A” by his children and grandchildren, he will be dearly missed.

Sam is survived by his favorite golf partner and beloved wife of 58 years, Sally Smyser Shelburne; daughters Jan Shelburne ’85 and her husband, James Pastoriza, and Lee Safran and her husband, Marc Safran ’80; sons Craig Shelburne and Sam Shelburne ’94 and his wife, Julia ’93; and 11 grandchildren.

Undergraduate Class of 1956