Obituary of C. Ashley Ellefson

C. Ashley (Ash) Ellefson, age 85, of Chestnut St., Cortland, died on Wednesday, 3 February 2016 from complications of bronchiectisis and copd. He was born in 1930 in Ferryvile, Wisconsin, to Clinton P. and Norma Worman Ellefson. He attended the three-room elementary school in Ferryville for his first nine years of schooling, and graduated as valedictorian from Seneca high school in 1948. In 1952 he graduated magna cum laude from Wisconsin State College, La Crosse, now called University of Wisconsin, La Crosse, with dual majors in history and English. During these early years Ash worked on farms, and during these summers he also worked in a John Deere shop putting machinery together and getting it ready for sale, and for six of these summers he raised tobacco with his farther. In the summer of 1952 he volunteered for the draft and spent fifty-nine days in the army before he was discharged because of a deformed foot. During 1953 he taught history and social studies in the high school in Fort Atkinson, Wisconsin, and then spent three semesters doing a master's degree in history at the University of Iowa in Iowa City. In the school year 1955-56 he taught history and economics in Luther College in Decorah, Iowa, and from the fall of 1956 to the fall of 1958 he taught history and English in the University of Maryland's bootstrap program on Air Force bases in Greenland, Labrador, Newfoundland, Bermuda, and Iceland. He then spent five years, from the fall of 1958 to the fall of 1963, doing a Ph.D. at the University of Maryland, College Park, and then taught history at the SUNY Cortland until he retired in 1993 as a Professor of History Emeritus. In 1971 he married Beverly Ann Baker of Severna Park, Maryland, who knew he was meant for her when she saw him walk into a chair at the Hall of Records in Annapolis, where she was working as an archivist. He published two books, The Higher Schooling in the United States (1978), and The County Courts and the Provincial Court in Maryland, 1733-1763 (1993). He also published several articles and has five manuscripts on colonial Maryland on the Archives of Maryland Online. He is survived by his wife, Beverly and his canine daughter Maggie; his brother Norman (Joyce), two sisters, Marjorie Foley and Carol (Lawrence) Bishop, and a number of nephews. In addition to his parents, he was preceded in death by two sisters, Marlene Joan in infancy and Myrna Brinkley, two brothers-in-law, Charles Brinkley and John Foley, as well as his canine daughters Co-Co, Cinder and Cori. It was Ash's wish that he be cremated and that there be no calling hours, no funeral, and no memorial service. Remembrances can be directed to the Cortland Community SPCA, 879 McLean Rd., Cortland, NY 13045 or Hubbard's Hounds Dog Rescue, PO Box 113, Homer, NY 13077.