Shelli Denise Gerhart, 57, passed away Jan. 2, 2025, at her home in Dublin, surrounded by her family, after a valiant fight against pancreatic cancer. Shelli was the eldest daughter in a long line of eldest daughters; she was proud to hold that mantle and embraced the characteristic sense of responsibility for so many around her, but she was also fiercely independent and refused to be boxed in by expectation or convention.
Shelli was born Oct. 28, 1967, in Silver Spring, Maryland and spent her earliest years in Maryland. When Shelli was eight, her parents, Sharon and Dale, moved the Sprouse family to Afton, Virginia. When she was 14, Sharon and Dale separated, and Shelli and her brother, Brian, moved back to Maryland to live with Sharon’s parents in Kensington. Shelli graduated from Albert Einstein High School in Kensington in 1985.
Shelli married Seth in 1987 and together they had two daughters, Ashlee and Rachael. After Shelli and Seth separated, Shelli moved in 1991 with the girls to Christiansburg and lived there for 26 years. She married Randall in 1995, and they had Maggie. Shelli and her girls were now a complete unit comprising all four corners, a force unto itself.
Shelli met the man she would love until the day she died, Scott, in 2015. Together, they moved into Scott and Shelli’s dream house–more than a century old, full of original fixtures and materials, and possibly a little haunted–in Dublin, Virginia in 2017, and worked tirelessly to restore and improve the home to make it their own. Shelli and Scott were married Dec. 21, 2021.
While raising her children and working full-time, Shelli earned her B.S. in English and her M.S. in English with a focus on Technical and Science Writing and Editing from Radford University in 1995 and 2001, respectively. She had a keen ability to understand technical information and convey it to a wide variety of audiences for any purpose. One year after moving to Christiansburg, she began working in a secretarial role for renowned brain scientist and Radford University Distinguished Professor, Dr. Karl Pribram. Shelli ultimately co-authored scientific publications with him and coordinated the activities of Dr. Pribram’s research lab. She next worked for more than a decade at the International Technology and Engineering Educators Association (ITEEA, formerly ITEA), where she helped develop and implement standards and curricula for K-12 technology education under programs funded by NASA and the National Science Foundation. She then was a technical writer for the engineering and manufacturing firm, Gala Industries. She spent what would be her final years working as a technical writer for Torc Robotics, where she felt perhaps the most professionally fulfilled and valued as she had in her entire career.
Shelli was known for her wide-ranging intellectual curiosity, her comfort walking in vastly different worlds, and for never balking at hard work. She read voraciously and studied everything from Shakespeare to Appalachian folklore to witchcraft to theology. She hand-made matching Easter dresses for her daughters; designed and built a narrow, tall spiral staircase to match the dimensions of a staircase at Monticello; wrote and sang bluegrass music and played guitar; and was instrumental in the efforts to compile the history of St. Albans in Radford and get it operational as a haunted house and ghost hunting site.
Shelli was preceded in death by her father, Dale Lee Sprouse; her biological father, Peter Michael Andrews, whom she regretfully never met; and her second husband, Randall Dwight Meade.
Shelli is survived and mourned by her husband, Scott Douglas Gerhart; mother, Sharon Lee Everett; brother, Brian Keith Sprouse; half-brother David Michael Sprouse (Edelyn); stepsister Dana Lancaster (Sam); stepmother Catherine Cornelia Sprouse; first husband, Seth Parker Wilkins; and her three beloved daughters, Ashlee Noelle Wilkins (Hannah Krug), Rachael Leigh Wilkins (Derek Harris), and Marilyn Madeline Margaret Meade (Spencer Thompson). She is also survived by her two grandchildren, Cecelia Parker Harris and Lennox Evander Harris, whom she adored and whose light brightened her eyes like nothing else could in her final days.
A celebration of life will be held on Saturday, Jan. 18 from 1-3p.m. at Twisted Liquid, 301 South Main Street, Suite 103, Blacksburg.
The Gerhart family is in the care of Mullins Funeral Home & Crematory in Radford.
