Sheldon H. Mellor was born on a farm in Fayette, Utah. He enlisted in the military immediately following high school. He wasn't able to join the Navy because of a past surgery, so he joined the U.S. Maritime Service. He trained in the Pacific Ocean and spent time in Japan. When he returned, he was drafted into the army and sent to Korea for a short period of time before the Korean War. He then served a mission in the Eastern United States. He worked cleaning flues and filters in hotels and installing automatic fire-prevention systems. He married, had three children, divorced, and remarried.