Jack A Shaw

Jack A. Shaw entered his heavenly home September 25, 2025, Franklin, Tennessee.

A memorial service will be held at 1:00 PM on Sunday, September 29, 2024, at Immanuel Baptist Church, 222 Belle Meade Blvd., Nashville, TN 37205 with Pastor Steven Meriwether officiating. Heritage Funeral Home is assisting the family with arrangements

Jack was born August 9th, 1927, in Jacksonville, Florida, to Samuel Wayne Shaw and Edith Mae Shaw.  He was the second oldest child of five.  His family lived and worked on a family farm raising hogs and growing tobacco, peanuts and sugar cane.  He graduated from Live Oak High School and in 1945,  he was called to be inducted into the Army at Camp Blanding, Florida but they said he was “too small and thin and they would not take me”.  So, around this time, he followed his older brother Mack out west to Cheyenne, Wyoming to be a cowboy.  He loved being outdoors and experiencing new things but the winters were too bitterly cold for the native Floridian, so he eventually moved back and entered college in 1949 at the University of Stetson in Deland, Florida, where he graduated in 1953 with a degree in American History.  The first in his family to do so.  Aunt Minnie and her two daughters, Thelma and Pauline, came and he never forgot how special that was to him.  He was then recommended to start a mission church in Cocoa, Florida.  He was the Chaplin for Pan American Airways and in that role was the first minister to go down to the islands of Eleuthera, Grand Bahamas, San Salvador, Nassau and Long Island to establish worship places for the employees of Pan American.  He met his future wife in Cocoa, Anne Faye Cox, unfortunately she was already engaged to a soldier but fate had other plans and they were eventually married in 1956.  Immediately after the wedding, they drove for three days to Louisville, Kentucky, where he was enrolled in the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, where he obtained his Master’s in theology.  He was called to pastor several different churches in Florida, each one being larger than the last; Frontenac, Madison, and Gainesville, Florida.  He was elected president of Gainesville Ministerial Association, which included pastors of all denominations in the area.  After serving several years at West Side Baptist Church, he decided it was time to have a career change as he always had an inclination to be a teacher, so in 1969, he became a teacher in the Alachua County school system and was president of the faculty at Gainesville High School for eight years.  He then felt called to be a high school counselor; so he went back to school through the University of Florida and obtained his postgraduate hours to be a high school counselor; he worked a total of twenty-seven years in the educational system and was selected by Florida Governor Bob Graham for his “work days program”, where the Governor would work alongside a person for a day to understand their job better.  It would not be uncommon while in Gainesville almost every time he would be out with his family, at a store, or a restaurant that someone would come up to him or yell “Right On!” or “Hey brother Shaw!” “Remember the day of the Dolphins!” and it would be a former student telling him how much he helped them through high school or a problem they were going through.  For over twenty years, he taught an in-depth adult Sunday school class, often assigning them homework, at the First Baptist Church in Gainesville, Florida.  In the 90’s, him and his son, Joe, traveled to see the Gators win multiple SEC championships and a National Championship, and personally met Steve Spurrier, he enjoyed watching the Gators play on TV or listening to play by play Otis Boggs on the radio; his two sons, Jay and Joe, worked selling refreshments in the stadium during many of the games.

He retired from the Alachua County school system in 1994.  He recalls his retirement years were exciting time of his life as he was able to have a bigger garden; he could go fishing whenever he wanted.  He had a big workshop built onto his house.  He loved spending time with his wife, Faye, and especially his grandchildren.  He loved attending Jakes Rodeos and watching Jordan and Jonah play sports.  He loved Immanuel Baptist church, he loved gardening, genealogy research and traveling and was proud that he had visited all fifty states and ate at a Cracker Barrel in every state that had one.  He had an appetite for adventure and unbound energy and enthusiasm for trying new things, new ideas and new foods, even at 97 years old he wanted to travel and in his mind he could still do it; he will be missed by all those that knew him.

Jack is survived by his sons, Joe Shaw (Denise) of Franklin, Tennessee, and Jay Shaw (Julie) of Jefferson, Texas; grandsons, Jake Shaw (Rachel) of Marshall, Texas, and Jonah Shaw of Tennessee; granddaughter, Jordan Shaw of Tennessee; great grandsons, Jett and Jase Shaw of Marshall, Texas; sister, Agnes Shaw, and brothers, Daniel Shaw and Stoney Shaw.

Jack was preceded in death by his parents, Samuel Wayne Shaw and Edith Mae North Shaw, wife, Anne Faye Shaw (married for 67 years), and brother, Malcom Shaw.

In lieu of flowers, the family asks that donations can be made in his name to either Habitat for Humanity (habitat.org) or Cooperative Baptist Fellowship (cbf.net).