Phillip A Shaw Jr.

The remarkable life of Phil Shaw ended peacefully on Wednesday, July 21, 2021, in Austin, Texas. As a centenarian, Phil was a member of the “the Greatest Generation,” whose lives were shaped by the experience of the Great Depression, World War II, and rapid technological innovation. Born on August 19, 1920, in Brownwood, Texas, during the final year of the Spanish Flu pandemic, Phil was the oldest of four children born to Phillip Allen Shaw, Sr. and Ann Hood Rose. Growing up on a farm, he attended grade school in a one-room schoolhouse taught by his mother. He graduated from Brownwood High School at age 16 and enrolled at Howard Payne University in 1937. Just prior to the entry of the United States into the war, Phil joined the Army Air Corps, beginning the first phase of a distinguished career in the service of his country.

During the war, one of Phil’s first assignments was training the Haitian Air Force in 1942. He was a member of the 380th bomb group and flew B-24s out of northern Australia at Fenton Field. Phil trained dozens of women pilots – WAVES (Women Accepted for Voluntary Emergency Service) as part of an experimental Army Air Corp program in 1944.

Phil met Billie Squibb at a dance while he was stationed at Davis AFB in Arizona. Billie was in college at the time. In 1944, they married at the First Methodist Church of Brownsville, Texas. Their life together spanned over 5 decades and is a great love story of two people who shared an adventurous spirit, a zest for life, and a desire to leave their mark on the world. There were moments of tragedy amid the joy, but always resilience. Phil retired from the Air Corps in 1946 and moved to Austin where he and Billie opened “The Prop Shop,” a hobby shop geared towards the model airplane enthusiast. They welcomed their first child, Sue Ann, in 1948.

In 1951, he was recommissioned and stationed at Shemeya AFB in the Aleutian Islands where he oversaw ordinance disposal and witnessed the start of the Korean War. He was transferred to the diplomatic corps and stationed in Lima, Peru from 1953 to 1956. It was here that Phil developed a love of all things Latin American. He delighted in the art, music, and culture of the country. He loved to entertain his grandchildren, great grandchildren, and friends with tales of life in Peru.

The family was stationed in Reykjavik, Iceland in 1961, returning to the states a year later to Tacoma, Washington. Billie and Phil settled in Austin in 1965 following his second retirement from the Air Force. The next decade was a busy one as Phil pursued graduate studies in Fine Art at the University of Texas with the prestigious American artist, Charles Umlauf as his mentor.

As he began a second career as a goldsmith and sculptor in the early 1970s, he befriended another Texas artist, James Avery, who engaged him to design pieces for his growing jewelry business. Phil’s signature style left a lasting impression on the iconic brand, and several of his original designs remain in the current collection. He produced jewelry that has traveled to the moon with the Apollo 17 mission as well as had two of his bronze sculptures become part of the permanent collection at the Amon Carter Museum of Fine Art in Fort Worth, Texas.

The motto inscribed on the Shaw family crest reads, Fide et Fortitudine. Truly, Phil’s legacy of character, faith and fortitude is forever etched on the hearts of his family. We mourn his loss but know that he is always near in the love he left behind.

Phil is preceded in death by his wife, Billie, his daughter, Sue Ann, and his son, Phillip. He is survived by his children, Laurie Shaw Davis and husband Brooks, Marie Shaw, Patti Shaw Ludwig, and Kevin Burks Shaw and wife Joy, as well as his nine grandchildren and fifteen great-grandchildren.

Services will be held on Friday, July 30th at 1:00 p.m. at Weed-Corley-Fish Funeral Home on 2620 South Congress Avenue, Austin, Texas, 78704. A reception with the family will follow. Interment will take place on Saturday, July 31st at Greenleaf Cemetery in Brownwood, Texas at 10:00 a.m.

In lieu of flowers, memorial gifts may be made in Phil’s honor to the St. Jude’s Hospital for Children at: stjude.org/donate .