John Arthur Shaw

The Honorable John A. (Jack) Shaw passed away at home in Chevy Chase, Maryland, of heart failure on April 5, 2020. Jack Shaw, born on July 1, 1939, was the grandson of United States Senator William S. Vare of Pennsylvania, and was raised in Haverford, PA, by his aunt and uncle, Dorothy Vare and Thomas Read Hulme, due to the early death of his parents, Beatrice Vare and Dr. John Joseph Shaw.

Shaw graduated from Kent School in Connecticut in 1957. He received a B.A. from Williams College in 1962, where he was a member of St. Anthony Hall. He later earned a Master’s degree (1967), and Ph.D. (1976) from Cambridge University, where he was a Fellow of Magdalene College. He taught international and diplomatic studies at Cambridge University, Williams College, Georgetown University, and the Institut d'Etudes Politiques in Paris.

In 1967, Dr. Shaw returned from England for an assistant professorship of history at Williams College, where he invested his own time and money to found the Williams College men's rowing team. Purchasing a former ice house and lakefront property near Pittsfield, MA, Shaw collected retired and donated racing shells from Kent School and Yale University, and established a new course on Lake Onota.

Over the next three years, Shaw reestablished a rowing program at the College that had been discontinued since the First World War. From Shaw's efforts in the early 1970’s, Williams has become a preeminent U.S. rowing program, with men’s and women’s crews winning successive NCAA Division III Rowing Championships over the last 20 years. In recognition of Shaw's perseverance, one of the shells in the John A. Shaw Boathouse is named Pride and Persistence, and a Silver Goblet bearing his name is given out each year to a male rower who embodies Shaw’s tenacious and fighting spirit.

Dr. Shaw went on to hold senior positions in every Republican administration from Richard Nixon to George W. Bush. Among his appointments, Shaw was confirmed by the Senate in 1975 as Inspector General of Foreign Assistance and Assistant Secretary of State, in which capacity he was responsible for the oversight of all U.S. foreign military sales, the Agency for International Development (U.S.AID), the Peace Corps, the Overseas Private Investment Corporation, and the Export-Import Bank.

During the 1980’s, Dr. Shaw served as Senior Advisor to the Administrator of U.S. AID, and later under President George H. W. Bush, as Associate Deputy Secretary and Chief Operating Officer of the Department of Commerce, where he oversaw a major effort to reform the Bureau of Export Administration as Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Export Enforcement.

Under President George W. Bush, from 2001 to 2005, Dr. Shaw served as Deputy Undersecretary of Defense for International Technology Security working under Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld directing the new Office of International Technology Security responsible for monitoring the export of sensitive technology.

Dr. Shaw also served in the private sector as Vice President of Booz Allen & Hamilton International, overseeing the development, organization and management of two new industrial cities, Jubail and Yanbu, in Saudi Arabia. He worked for several management consulting companies, the St. Phalle International Group and the Cambridge Consulting Group, overseeing international business development projects.

In addition, from 1980-84 Dr. Shaw was a Senior Fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), specializing in Middle Eastern and International Business Affairs, and co-authored a seminal study entitled Saudi Arabian Modernization: The Impact of Change on Stability. He later became Vice President for Washington Operations for the Hudson Institute, overseeing the Center for Naval Analyses.

From 2007, Dr. Shaw served as an advisory board member at NeXplore Corporation, a software company that develops Internet properties and applications primarily in the United States. He was an early supporter of candidate Donald Trump, and vigorously engaged in publishing articles in support of President Trump. He had a specific focus in advocating for Charter Schools in his home town of Philadelphia.

Dr. Shaw was a member of the Metropolitan Club in Washington, D.C., and the Chevy Chase Club in Chevy Chase, MD. He was also a member of the Philadelphia Club in Philadelphia, PA, and the Merion Cricket Club in Merion, PA. In addition, Dr. Shaw was an Honorary Member of the Connecticut Chapter of the Society of the Cincinnati, and a member of St. Anthony Hall.

A previous marriage to Deborah Rossiter of Easton, Maryland, with whom he had two children, John Read Hulme Shaw and Deborah Brittain Shaw, ended in divorce. Dr. Shaw is survived by his beloved wife Helen Anderson Shaw of Houston, Texas; his children, John and Brittain Shaw; four grandchildren, Eliza Goldsborough Shaw, Lydia Bennett Shaw, Conor Vare McInnis and Logan Tilghman McInnis; two cousins with whom he was brought up, Mary (Mimi) Hulme O’Malley, and Susanne Vare Hulme; two cousins, Ida Mae (Sissy) Peacock Terry of Vero Beach, FL, and Oliver L. (Sonny) Peacock, Jr. of Cashiers, N.C.; and five nieces and nephews. Dr. Shaw was preceded in death by his elder brother, Dr. William Vare Shaw.

A memorial service for Dr. Shaw will take place at All Saints Episcopal Church in Chevy Chase, MD, at a later date, followed by interment in the Vare Family mausoleum in West Laurel Hills, PA. Contributions in Dr. Shaw’s memory may be made to the Kent School Boat Club, P.O. Box 2006, Kent, CT, 06757; All Saints Episcopal Church, 3 Chevy Chase Circle, Chevy Chase, MD, 20815; and to St. Anthony Hall, P.O. Box 876, Ithaca, N.Y.,14851.