John Hamilton Shields

John passed away October 19th, after a brief illness. He is survived by his parents James and Elizabeth Shields, Aunts Beverly Scott and Cindi Barnes, Uncles William Shields and Mark Riggs and his four beloved Plott Hounds Bubba, Bijou, Beau and Junior. Reared in the Moravian Church John attended Two Cities Church at the time of his death.

John was a Ph.D. candidate and Teaching Assistant in the Geography Department at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro where he also earned his B.A. and M.A. degrees. He twice received the John J. Hidore Award for Exemplary Service to the Department and Discipline of Geography, was President of GES Club and President of the Kappa Phi Chapter of the Gamma Theta Upsilon International Geographical Honor Society. He held Level II Thermography Certification and was qualified to teach Thermography Certification classes, held APSA-NIST BPERP Certification, Part 107 Drone Pilot Certification, and was a Certified Researcher with the National Park Service, and a certified SCUBA diver. John also completed the graduate certificate program in Geographic Information Systems at Pennsylvania State University.

John was highly regarded in the department for his service as president of the geography honor society Gamma Theta Upsilon, a position he held until his passing, and was also well known for helping with the production and food for GES Club at every meeting. John was quick to help with anything needed; from unloading unanticipated equipment shipments, to tackling a difficult Science Olympiad event on short notice, he was there for the department when needed.

His Ph.D. research focused on using advanced principles and techniques of thermographic analysis to develop more complex, accurate and predictive models of Urban Heat Islands. Previous research dealt with detecting and mapping background radiation with a highly sensitive, next generation gamma spectrometer developed by Dr. John Dowell at Los Alamos National Laboratory in 2018. John also conducted experiments to examine the feasibility of identifying radioactive isotopes by their thermographic properties, and identifying species of trees using the thermographic properties of each species transpiration.

An avid follower of all sports John was particularly fond of Soccer and Tottenham Hotspur. On his most recent trip to Europe he had the opportunity to practice with Busingen am Hochrhein FC, the local club in the German village of Busingen and had been invited to practice with the team again on his planned return visit between semesters.

John’s interest in graphic design resulted in several award winning designs for soccer jerseys. John was also contracted by Elsevier, the world’s largest publisher of works of science, to create graphics for textbooks.

A graduate of Fishburne Military School he served as Regimental Adjutant, Platoon Leader for Band Company and received the Best Officer Award for excellence in Drill and Ceremony. He Captained the Varsity Football and Tennis teams as well as running Varsity Cross Country.

John had scheduled another visit to Europe at the end of Fall Semester. He planned to divide his time between Zurich and Busingen am Hochrhein, Germany where he was scheduled to practice with the Busingen FC soccer team and conduct more research for a planned paper on Busingen.

The family wishes to thank the staff members of Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center Health Coronary Care Unit, Intensive Care Unit, Intermediate Care Unit, and Trellis Supportive Care for their professional and compassionate care.

The Department of Geography plans to honor John at an event in April and a Celebration of Life will be scheduled at a later date.