Shelly Rosebrook Westall was born to Margaret Westall and Elwyn M. Westall on March 28, 1943, in Palo Alto, California. Shelly passed away on March 3, 2026 in Los Altos Hills, California. When Shelly was six and a half years old, her father, ElwynWestall, was tragically killed in a logging accident in the Sierras, where the family owned a drugstore business. Margaret was widowed with a six and a half year- old child, Shelly, to raise in Los Altos Hills, to which they moved. There were no siblings.

Shelly attended schools in the Palo Alto School District, and attended high school at Cubberley High School, where she succeeded academically. Upon graduation, she headed for San Jose State where she completed bachelor's and master’s degrees degrees. While working toward those goals, artistic rumblings were germinating within. She was coming to realize, but not yet consummate, her passions for the culinary and visual arts. Her beloved mother Margaret and Shelly had lived a life of virtually continuous art in their modest Los Altos Hills home, inviting myriad local friends into their home many afternoons for artistic endeavors—painting, textile coloration, mosaics, frescos, and floral arranging. While a teacher at Cubberly High School and Gunn High School and later an itinerant art teacher around Palo Alto (during the school budget reduction days of the arts), Margaret kept art alive, well, and omnipresent in their lives, and Shelly was germinating. After those years of art immersion in her home, she was about to enter at first gingerly into artisan food soon thereafter at an accelerated pace.

After graduation, Shelly worked at Stanford for a brief period. While she did well, her heart was in the art and food business. She was an artist at heart. During this period, Shelly received life- changing advice from a spiritual advisor—if food and art are your passions, combine them and become a “food artist.” Shelly jumped at the idea of designing and preparing lavish, artistic foods and libations, coupled with visual arts, equally as a work of art and as a culinary tour de force.

She became renowned for her custom catering assignments in the greater Palo Alto area, assignments that became epicurean feasts rather than mere parties. Her feasts were not mere “meat and potatoes"; they were epic, ethnic, rare events. People were mesmerized. What might otherwise be the usual conservative sit-down with salmon or beef, hers became an artistic and distinctive epic experience. The visual touches were so inspired by her beloved mentor Margaret; she learned to add art, elegance, and creativity to conservative fare. When clients fully empowered her to rely on her own inspiration, clients, staff, and all involved were consistently wowed by 100 lobsters in a huge pink circle surrounding a lavish Asian feast, Indian, French, Mediterranean, vegetarian, garden-to-table, and other fiestas of color, flora, aroma, taste, and elegance. People constantly sought and enjoyed the creativity she offered. People around today still talk about it.

Shelly had a mystic side. She intensively studied tarot as a tool of divination and became knowledgeable and adroit. Tarot resonated with her and her clients, particularly those seeking clarity amid the entropy of life. She had a tarot practice from the 80s through the 2010s. People sought tarot readings from Shelly, which she did in her home studio. Also, she became a close friend and donor to Jean-Pierre Hallet and his ventures related to the African pygmy peoples and their environment.

In the 1970s, Shelly became closely involved with canines, particularly wolves and arctic/sled dogs. Shelly was the enthusiastic owner of sixteen large sled dogs throughout her life. She reveled in the care and training of those dogs. A friend noted her enthusiasm and built her a wheeled dog sled and a harness. You could find Shelly out near the old Mountain View landfill with those seven dogs harnessed to the wheeled dog sled pulling her roughly around the spacious spaces there. Those dogs became well trained, and she took them to the snow several times. She became an advocate of these and all such dogs. She became enamored of the environmental and life protection of sled dogs and North American wolves. She became an avid wolf protectionist and donor to wild and domestic wolf causes.

About thirteen years before the end of her life, Shelly acquired a wolf puppy and began to raise and protect it in her Los Altos Hills estate. She met and funded wolf protectionists, wolf whisperers, wolf veterinarians, wolf sanctuaries, and people advancing wolf habitat and protection and contributed to their cause. People were enamored by Shelly and her wolf (named Torah after the Jewish holy book). In the end, Torah was donated, at Shelly’s instruction, to a wolf sanctuary in the Tehachapi Mountains of southern California, where Torah now lives in protected comfort. (Sort of a wolf, Hyatt!) Shelly was very loving and protective of the environment in general and the canine environment in particular. She was environmentally focused across the spectrum.

Shelly was a welcome guest and attendee at Temple Beth Am. She also attended many continuing education classes at Stanford. Continuing her love of nature she also attended many birding classes which included field trips around the bay and along the coast.

Shelly was able to live out her entire life in her unique estate in Los Altos Hills, accompanied to the end by her beloved Torah. At Shelly’s request, there will be no funeral and no memorial. Per Shelly's wishes, any donations or gifts should be made to the LARC, Lockwood Animal Rescue Center, in Frazier Park, California. It is a 501(C)(3) non-profit recognized by the IRS. It provides a forever home for rescued wolves, wolfdogs, and other animals. For more about their wonderful sanctuary go to lockwoodarc.org. For Shelly’s passionate love of trees, a donation can also be made to the Sempervirens Fund to save the redwoods at sempervirens.org.