Rollie Shipley was born in Epworth, England and came to Canada with his parents who settled in Birtle, Manitoba.
After attending school in Birtle and Rossburn, he entered into partnership with his father in the Russell district. The father-son team engaged in several enterprises, including auctioneering, farming and the operation of a meat marketing business in the town of Russell.
In 1942, Rollie Shipley’s knowledge of sheep, cattle and particularly farming was to be made available to many. He became an inspector for the Trust and Loan Company of Canada- a company that was later purchased by the Canada Permanent Trust Company. Mr. Shipley’s company work directly affected the lives and destinies of many people. He was a great humanitarian; he was the advocate of the tenant farmer who had battled to stay solvent in the depression. The Canada Permanent Trust Company acted on the advice of Mr. Shipley and stood by their tenants of the disaster years, allowing them to build up control to purchase the farms they had rented for many years from the Trust and Loan Company.
Mr. Shipley was an authority on land values and was often called upon to sell and appraise farms. He was intensely interested in more productive crop yields. He studied soil conditions, was a pioneer in the use of fertilizer and an advocate of better machinery and better storage facilities.
An able, competent, compassionate man, he felt keenly the trials and triumphs of his farmer friends.