Tom Shevlin - Death and Family

Death and Family

In the fall of 1915, Shevlin contracted a cold while training the Yale football team. He continued to coach through his illness, and reportedly lost 12 pounds during the training. At the close of the football season, Shevlin left for California, hoping to recuperate from the illness. The rest in California improved his condition, and he cut the stay short to return to Minneapolis to attend to his business interests. After returning to Minneapolis in late December 1915, Shevlin developed pneumonia. As his condition worsened, a telegram was sent to B.W. Sippy, a specialist in Chicago to come to his beside. Sippy was sent to Minneapolis on a special train which sped to Minneapolis in a then-record time of eight hours, but Shevlin died at his home on December 29, 1915 at age 32. After his death, it was written that "Shevlin gave his life to make Yale a winner." A Midwestern newspaper wrote:

"The death of Tom Shevlin at Minneapolis, Minn., his home, closes one of the finest careers a college athlete ever led. From the time Shevlin entered Yale in 1902 he was a credit to clean amateur sports and from the time he left college in 1905 he was a credit to the business world."

Shevlin was survived by his widow and two children. Shevlin left a fortune estimated to be worth $3,500,000. The estate was left in trust for his children, and his widow was left with an allowance of $60,000 per year. He also left more than $1.5 million in life insurance, most of which went to the companies that he ran. Only seven other men in the United States carried as much life insurance as Shevlin. After his death, the $1.5 million life insurance purchased by the Shevlin companies was used by life insurance in a major advertising campaign promoting the use of keyman insurance. The following text from a full-page advertisement in The Atlanta Constitution is an example:

"The value of an officer or worker in any partnership or corporation is most realized at his death. Then insurance in favor of the business should be ready to replace him. Tom Shevlin's firm lost its most valuable asset in Tom Shevlin's death, but insurance of about a million dollars will replace his loss. There's a real moral in this for Atlanta partnerships and corporations -- be prepared."