Biography:
Shelley Wold died peacefully on August 26th, 2026 at Hospice Home Care in Little Rock after
a brief battle with cancer.
She is preceded in death by her husband, Don Wold, her grandson, Andrew Chiego and
her brother, John Thurman.
Shelley was born on January 27th, 1935, in Evansville, Wisconsin, where she went to
elementary and high school. She attended the University of Wisconsin where she
earned a Bachelor’s degree in Latin American studies and a Master’s degree in Library
Science.
She met her husband Don at the Wesley Foundation on the campus of UW. As Mom
notes in her autobiography Stories From My Life-Shelley Wold, “We went to Pakistan in
1958, where Don taught Physics at Foreman Christian College, and I got our home
organized and found myself pregnant with our first child.”
They returned to the states in 1963 and eventually ended up in Little Rock at UALR,
Don teaching in the Physics Department and Shelley in charge of Government
Documents in the Library at UALR.
She leaves her three children, Sara Chiego (John), Steve Wold and Sheila Wold
McKinnis; sister-in-law Kathleen Thurman and niece Mary Thurman; four grandsons:
Chris Chiego, Peter Chiego, Clark McKinnis and Evan McKinnis and a first great
grandbaby due on December 25th.
A Celebration of Life will be held on Saturday, September 26th at 1 pm at Trinity United
Methodist Church, on the corner of Mississippi and Evergreen in Little Rock with a
reception to follow.
In lieu of flowers, memorials may be sent to: Trinity United Methodist Church, 1101 N. Mississippi St., Little Rock, AR 72207 or Shelley T. Wold Student Support Fund, UA Little Rock Office of Alumni and Development, Attn: Chris Hamilton, 2801 South University Ave., Little Rock, AR 72204. Arrangements are under the direction of RuebelFuneralHome.com