Kenneth DuBois “Ken” Shaub was born in Holtwood, Pennsylvania to Reuel and Mary Shaub on July 22, 1920. He passed away in Bryan, Texas on Christmas Day, 2020 and joined his parents, his sister, Jeanette Shaub Cirincione, Kay, his wife of forty-three years, their infant daughter, their eldest son Steve, and many relatives and friends who went home before him during his one hundred years on earth.
He is survived by his son Patrick and wife Linda of Marble Falls, TX, son Michael and wife Linda of College Station, TX, son Kevin of Houston, TX, son Sean and wife Darla of Houston, TX, niece Rosemary Cirincione Lusco of Myrtle Beach, SC, and daughter-in-law, Bonnie Shaub Eberle and husband Charles Eberle of Summerville, SC.
He was affectionately called Grandad by his:
Grandchildren, Jessica Shaub Lewis and husband Ben, Scott Shaub; Gordon Shaub and wife Jennifer, John Shaub and wife Melinda, James Shaub and wife Tara; Sarah Shaub Crain and husband Jeremy, Kristie Shaub Smith and husband Mike, Kenneth Shaub and wife Britta, Katie Shaub Hwang and husband Sam, Nathan Shaub and wife Ellen; Stephanie Shaub, Blake Baxter and wife Amy.
Great-Grandchildren, Elijah Lewis, Simon Lewis, Gideon Lewis; Kay Shaub, James Shaub, Bentlee, Kaleb and John Shaub; Aaron Crain, Emma Kate Crain; Avery Smith, Andrew Smith, Adeline Smith; Chloe Shaub and Cole Baxter.
Ken was raised in rural Pennsylvania on the banks of the Susquehanna River where his father managed the power dam for Pennsylvania Power and Light. He lived to fish the river and hunt the woods with his father. He attended a one-room schoolhouse there through 8th grade before his father was transferred to Baltimore, Maryland. Ken was given his father’s saxophone at age twelve and after three years of diligent practice, at age fifteen became a professional musician. For the next seven years he played sax and clarinet, eventually playing in one of the premier “Big Bands” in Baltimore. He was an accomplished tennis player as well and lost in the Finals of the Baltimore City Amateur Championship in 1938. During this time, he also became a machinist working for the Martin Aircraft Company. By the time the Japanese attacked America on December 7, 1941, Ken was the lead machinist on Martin’s assembly line building the B-26 bomber. His enlistment in the Marine Corps on December 8th was deferred by the company against his wishes until May, 1942 while Ken trained his replacement.
Ken completed recruit training at Marine Corps Base Parris Island and then radio school at Quantico, Virginia. While training at Quantico, and just before he left for the war, Ken met and fell in love with “Kay,” Catherine Eileen Hennigan - on a train in Union Station in Washington, D.C. During the war she wrote him almost every day. Soon after they met however, Ken was assigned to Camp Pendleton, California and arrived to become one of the first Marines forming the new 4th Marine Division. He was assigned to Company “A”, 4th Tank Battalion and became a tank crewmember. Fighting in a Sherman tank for the duration of the war, Ken participated in four Pacific island fights: the first fight was on Kwajalein Atoll. During the division’s second landing – Saipan - he participated in the biggest tank battle of the Pacific War. In the brutal fight on Saipan his Company Commander and Platoon Sergeant posthumously earned the Navy Cross and Medal of Honor respectively. Ken survived to fight again on Tinian Island, and later during the brutal and iconic battle on the island of Iwo Jima.
Two weeks after he returned from Hawaii at the end of the war, Ken married Kay. The new couple soon moved to Socorro, New Mexico where Ken attended the New Mexico Institute of Mining & Technology on the GI bill. Ken and Kay had their first of five sons there. They named him “Stephen” after Ken’s company commander who died on Saipan. Ken obtained his degree in Physics, studying under one of the physicists who developed the atomic bomb. The two remained lifelong friends. After graduation, Ken went to work for Bendix Corporation in Baltimore, Maryland with his job inventing new aircraft and missile technology. Ken’s inventions produced fifty-two patents for the company. One of them resulted in a multi-million-dollar contract for Bendix and a massive expansion of the campus on which he worked. Ken joked that he received $50 and a “thank you” letter from the company’s president for that invention.
After ten years with Bendix, and the birth of four more sons, (Patrick, Michael, Kevin and Sean), Ken accepted a position with Texaco Experiment, Inc. and moved the family to Richmond, Virginia. His new employer with a collection of physicists “invented things,” as one of his colleagues said. Ken’s first assignment and the job for which he was hired was to create a robotic lunar rover. His first day on the job, President Kennedy made his famous speech promising to land a man on the moon, which ended Ken’s first assignment before it started. But many further assignments kept him working on classified programs for the US military until Texaco transferred him to the home office in Houston, Texas.
Ken worked for Texaco in Houston as a geophysicist for the rest of his career. He retired with Kay in the home they bought new when they arrived in Houston. They had raised five sons when Kay passed away in 1989. Over the next 28 years, Ken remained in his home, drove his wife’s red Firebird, and watched his expanding clutch of twelve grandchildren and then fifteen great-grandchildren grow. He was overjoyed when the dozens of family members came together from, as he would say, "hither & yon," for the annual Shaub Family Christmas, summer BBQ festivities for his birthday, and Veterans Day celebrations at Sean and Darla's Houston home. Under the watchful eye of Sean & Darla during those 28 years, he made numerous friends and became known as "The #1 Fan" attending Sean's Men's Adult Baseball League games, as well as going to USTA tennis tournaments that Sean, Darla, and their daughter Stephanie competed in, and he enjoyed being at her many sporting and dance events.
Suffering a stroke at age 96, Ken left his home of almost fifty years and lived first with the family of his son, Patrick and wife Linda for two years. When his healthcare needs grew, he moved close to his son Michael and wife Linda and resided at the Isle at Watercrest in Bryan, Texas, which could better care for his growing healthcare needs. The family is grateful for the attentiveness of those who loved him there, especially the third floor staff.
The COVID pandemic of 2020 separated Ken from most of his family until he entered Hospice the week before Christmas. But during that time in Hospice, he visited with and said goodbye to his family. He expressed his happiness at the prospect of joining his wife and son, his family, and his many friends tragically lost in combat during the war. After passing away quietly at 8:30pm on Christmas night he is with them now in heaven. His body will be laid to rest next to Kay. He will receive military honors by his fellow Marines of the 4th Division at the graveside in Memorial Oaks Cemetery in Houston, Texas.
Honored to be pallbearers for their Dad and Grandad are Pat Shaub, Mike Shaub, Kevin Shaub, Sean Shaub, John Shaub, Nathan Shaub and James Shaub.
Honorary pallbearers are his grandsons Scott Shaub, Gordon Shaub, Blake Baxter, Ben Lewis, Jeremy Crain, Mike Smith, Kenny Shaub and Sam Hwang.
The family requests those who wish to express sympathy to consider making a donation to their favorite charity in Kenneth Shaub’s memory.
Visitation with the family will be Monday, January 4, 2021 at 10:30 am in The Hunters Creek Chapel at Earthman Funeral Directors, 8303 Katy Freeway, Houston, Texas 77024 with the Celebration of Life and remembrances following at 12:30 pm. Graveside service with Marine Corps Funeral Honors will be at Memorial Oaks Cemetery, 13001 Katy Freeway, Houston, Texas 77079.
SHARE OBITUARYSHARE
v.1.13.0