Winston L. Shelton

NBC Today Show host Willie Geist profiled Shelton’s life in a “A Life Well Lived” segment on April 21, 2019. In the profile, Geist quoted Shelton’s philosophy of life: “Innovating for the sake of others is how we pay our rent for our time on Earth. It’s how we give back to something that’s given us so much”.

A biography of Shelton written by author Steve Coomes entitled "Winston L. Shelton: a life of Invention" was published February 4, 2018. The book features Shelton discussing his life in his own words as well as contributions from family and co-workers.

Shelton was interviewed in May 2018 by Louisville television station WHAS-TV (ABC affiliate) reporter Sara Wagner as part of "Characters of Kentuckiana". The segment, entitled "Inventing Never Stops - The Inventor" showcased Shelton's passion for invention and how Colonel Sanders helped drive his inventions of the Collectramatic fryer and the CVap Oven. Shelton explained how his father's answer to Shelton's question of what his father hoped to be remembered for (to have made the world a better place through his efforts in life) had motivated Shelton to continually invent better ways for the world to cook and enjoy more nutritious food. The interview was first broadcast on June 4, 2018, as part of "Good Morning Kentuckiana".

Shelton was interviewed in June 2016 by a team of French journalists about his friendship and business relationship with Colonel Sanders and his invention of the Collectramatic fryer for KFC. Shelton and Chef Barry Yates also demonstrated how the Collectramatic functions. The 90 minute documentary, "Inside KFC : Au coeur d'un géant du fast food (Inside KFC: In the heart of a fast food giant)" was first broadcast on September 14, 2016, as part of the French television news magazine "Focus", hosted by Guy Lagache, on the Groupe Canal+ C8 Network.

His daughter, Valerie Shelton was named President and CEO of Winston Industries in 2010. She resigned the position in March, 2020.

Starting in 2008, the CVap oven was tested by University of Kentucky College of Agriculture, Food and Environment Food Systems Innovation Center, validating the safe processing of proteins in CVap ovens during a five-year testing program. According to Nathan Myhrvold, founder of The Cooking Lab, "... the CVap provides better temperature stability than any ordinary oven or holding cabinet does". Another benefit of the CVap process is that it results in less product loss during cooking, which translates into higher profit. Farmhaus restaurant chef-owner Kevin Willmann explained the benefit in cooking porchetta in a CVap oven. Conventional oven cooking resulted in a loss of 25 to 40 percent of the meat's initial weight. "You go to CVap and that can't happen because the environment is so humid that moisture can't leave". Willman claimed a loss of less than 10 percent when cooking the same recipe in a CVap oven.

Colonel Sanders asked Shelton to invent a better way to hold just fried KFC chicken so the crust would not get soggy as the food was held for sale. Shelton invented a process in which cooked food was held in a controlled water vapor atmosphere heated to the food's desired finished temperature. Shelton named his invention "Controlled Vapor Technology". Shelton's food holding device using his Controlled Vapor Technology was named the "Controlled Vapor Oven" or "CVap Oven", a device that could indefinitely hold food safely at both a desired temperature and texture. Shelton was awarded a US Patent in 1996 for his invention of Controlled Vapor Technology and the Controlled Vapor Oven. "CVap®" is a registered trademark.

Rockwell finally agreed to schedule a portrait session with Sanders in August 1973, where reference photographs were taken in studio and Rockwell made "color notes" in oil of Sanders. In November, Rockwell wrote "I would like to have him (Sanders) see the portrait, as far as I have done it, to see whether it is to his liking". Rockwell finished the portrait and presented it to Sanders on March 16, 1974.

In 1973, at the urging of his wife Dolly, Shelton sought to have Norman Rockwell paint a portrait of Colonel Sanders as a way to commemorate "the Colonel". Working through George Bemis, Shelton's Advertising and Promotion Manager, a series of letters were sent to Rockwell, starting in March, 1973. Rockwell initially refused, saying "…my schedule is completely filled for a year and a half, so it would just be impossible for me to do a portrait of Colonel Sanders".

After inventing a fryer with Mies, Shelton then invented the Collectramatic in 1969, a stationary, self-filtering fryer, employing precision time and temperature controls to meet Kentucky Fried Chicken founder Colonel Harland Sanders' legendary exacting standards. Shelton's self-filtering fryer allowed KFC restaurants to continuously fry multiple batches of chicken without interruption. Colonel Sanders "enthusiastically supported" the Collectramatic.

In 1965, Shelton formed Engineering Prototype Services (EPS) with his brother, Naaman Shelton, Jr (1919-1990) in Louisville, Kentucky where he could work on projects outside of the GE product line. Colonel Sanders was one of the first investors in the new company. Shelton resigned from GE in 1968. The company name was changed to Winston Industries in 1984.

Addressing the need for better controls for the automatic washing machine, in 1955 Shelton took a Telechron clock motor and built a geared, cam timing control mechanism around it. Patented as the “Timing Mechanism for Conducting a Selected One of a Plurality of Sequences of Operation”, the control is still in use on many appliances (US 2870278 A).

Shelton's career at General Electric began in 1948 as an engineer in the GE Home Laundry facility in Trenton, New Jersey. In 1952, Shelton transferred to the new General Electric Appliance Park in Louisville, Kentucky as a Research and Development Engineer when the Trenton Home Laundry division was consolidated there along with GE's other major appliance product lines. His tenure there spanned two decades. While there, his inventions earned 35 patents, primarily related to the drum washing machine, all assigned to GE. His inventions helped create and refine the modern, top-loading, rotating spiral agitator clothes washer. Shelton invented the mechanism to automatically provide the correct water level(s) at a desired water temperature during a washing machine's cycles and an easily removed and cleaned soil trap that strained insoluble dirt and debris as the unit's water was filtered through it during the wash and rinse cycles. GE marketed Shelton's invention as the "Filter-Flo Basket". The unit fit on top of the washing machine's agitator post and rotated during use.

Winston Laverne Shelton (May 3, 1922 – April 15, 2019) was an American inventor, electrical engineer and entrepreneur who was awarded 76 US patents as an individual or as part of a team, as well as many corresponding patents. Shelton's patents have had an impact relating to home washing machines and the preparation of food in both the Quick Service Restaurant (QSR) industry and fine dining. Technologies Shelton developed while an engineer at General Electric are still in use after more than fifty years. His patent for the modern "Washing Machine" (US 3257830 A), licensed in 1965 to General Electric has been referenced in over 40 subsequent patents.

Born in Lockwood, West Virginia, in 1922, Shelton was the youngest of Naaman Shelton Sr. (1889–1962) and Opal Dell (née Keenan) (1895–1979) Shelton's five children. Opal Shelton operated the "Cross Roads Restaurant", a roadside diner next to the family's Standard Oil service station in Clay, West Virginia, where young Shelton had his first exposure to food service, helping his mother in the diner's kitchen. Shelton enlisted in the US Army in 1943, serving in the Army Specialized Training Program at Princeton University in the School of Engineering and was discharged in 1945. Shelton's education included attending Greenbrier Military School, Princeton University and West Virginia University, earning a Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering in 1948.