Dave Shellenbarger
Dollars for Scholars Co-Chair
Dave graduated from Michigan State University in 1968 with a degree in Marketing and worked for two international corporations in various sales and marketing positions before starting his own company in 1981. The company evolved from hardware sales and leasing to software and services with 26 offices and two international subsidiaries before the company was sold. He retired in 1999. He purchased a home in Bonita Springs and has lived seasonally in Florida and Michigan since 2000.
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His community involvement in Florida has been extensive, including serving as a trustee of the Southwest Florida Community Foundation, as an advisory board member of The Salvation Army, as a trustee of the Lee Health Foundation, as a board member of the Speaker’s Assembly of Southwest Florida, as president of Preserve Bonita Bay Inc.. He also served for nine years as a board member and past board chair for New Horizons of Southwest Florida. He is past member of both the Board of the Bonita Bay Club and the Bonita Bay Community Association and led his condominium association board for several years. He currently chairs the Bonita Springs Community Fund Board, is a member of the Bonita Senior Center Board of Directors, and the Bonita Springs Rotary Club Foundation Board where he serves as Secretary.
In 2006 he published a Needs Assessment Report for south Lee County for the Southwest Florida Community Foundation, as well as a Health Care Needs Assessment Report for the South Lee County Hospital Committee in 2010 that was significant in the decision by Lee Health to build its Coconut Point facility. He has contributed monthly as a writer to Bay Watch News, a community newspaper in Bonita Bay, since 2010. He chaired the Land Use Committee for the Bonita Bay Community Association in 2014 and 2015 and chaired a study on the impact of EVs on the community in 2022. He continues to be active in activities outside of Bentley.
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He has written three books, Unspoiled Will Spoil You, Spyglass – The Story, and Muslims, Jews, Christians, and Politics. He is currently writing a novel, a mystery involving the establishment of a genetic research company seeking new cancer treatments, set in southwest Florida.
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Dave is a widower since his wife of fifty-five years, Kathie, passed away in December 2023; he has two sons and seven grandchildren. Hobbies are golf, travel, friends and family.