Wayne Schelle was an entrepreneur and true pioneer in the early days of wireless communications, helping establish mobile communications in the Washington and Baltimore metropolitan areas that became blueprints for the industry on a national scale. Born and raised in Baltimore, MD, Wayne attended the Johns Hopkins University, where he majored in industrial engineering. He played football for the Blue Jays until the 1954 season when he suffered a severe leg injury. During his hospital stay at Johns Hopkins, Wayne met a student nurse Elaine Neely, who would become his future wife.

Early in his career Wayne worked at AT&T Corporation. He then took the helm of Walter Lohr’s family-owned paging and mobile telephone company, American Radio Telephone Services (ARTS). In 1980 under Wayne’s guidance, ARTS built one of the first two experimental cellular systems in the United States. Servicing the Washington/Baltimore market, ARTS officially launched this system in December 1983 as the second commercial nonwireline cellular system in the nation, operating under the brand of Cellular One.

Following the success of ARTS, Wayne formed a new venture, American Personal Communications (APC). Recognizing the massive potential of APC’s forward-looking digital vision, The Washington Post Company stepped in as a major early investor. With its groundbreaking engineering and innovative work in developing the 2 GHz band, the FCC awarded APC a prestigious Pioneer’s Preference license, making them one of only three companies in the nation granted a license ahead of the traditional spectrum auctions.

In the mid-1990s, APC partnered with the Sprint Telecommunications Venture to build out the nation’s very first Personal Communications Services (PCS) system. Operating in the 1900 MHz spectrum band, this digital network provided clearer calls, improved capacity, and an all-in-one device that served as a phone, pager, and answering machine. APC officially launched the network under the Sprint Spectrum brand with the inaugural PCS call made by Vice President Al Gore from the White House to Baltimore Mayor Kurt Schmoke on November 15, 1995. Rather than requiring rigid annual contracts and complex multi-day dealer activations, PCS revolutionized the wireless consumer market by introducing instant over-the-air activation, mass retail purchasing, dedicated retail stores, and consumer-friendly pricing with free airtime packages and no mandatory long-term service contracts.

APC become a family affair in the 1990s, with Wayne serving as Chairman and his son, Scott Schelle, taking over as CEO. In 1998, after Sprint acquired APC’s remaining ownership interests, Wayne retired from the telecommunications industry having successfully advanced two major generations of wireless technology – analog cellular and digital PCS. For his work at APC and the historic launch of PCS, RCR Wireless named Wayne its 1995 Person of the Year. He was inducted into the Wireless Hall of Fame in 2005. Wayne passed away on January 10, 2017, and Elaine, his wife of 58 years, passed away on July 12, 2025.