Aberdeen resident, John T. Shaw, 59, has been the executive director of the Westport South Beach Historical Society for the past two years, which puts him in charge of two national treasures – the Westport Maritime Museum and the Grays Harbor Light Station.
The road to his current position included stints as a beverage truck driver, a commodities broker and a small wooden boat builder before he embarked on a more than 36-year career building 30’–70’ custom yachts.
The first of five children of seven-season NFL quarterback George H. Shaw and his wife Patty, John was ‘born on the road’ in Atlanta, Georgia, and grew up in Portland, Oregon.
Grays Harbor ties
Shaw has had ties to Grays Harbor since he was a kid.
“My grandfather, Gerry Phillips, was the glue that held the extended family together. From the time I was about six in 1963 through the early 1970s, he would take my dad, my brother Pat and I and all our boy cousins and their dads on salmon fishing trips out of Warrenton, Ilwaco and Westport each summer.”
He has a cousin who married a Baretich from Aberdeen and has many fond memories of the late Ida Carniel, the family’s beloved, outspoken matriarch.
Entering the workforce
John graduated from U.S. Grant High School in Portland in 1975 and went on to earn his BS in Business from the University of Oregon in 1981.
While in high school and college, he and his brother Pat both worked summers and school holidays as beverage truck drivers.
Following college, after comparing his potential earnings in the corporate world to his then current pay as a Teamsters Union member, John took the higher pay road and continued driving truck full-time.
Bulls and bears
As a side pursuit, he and a friend started a commodities brokerage business dealing in development and marketing of payment-in-kind (PIK) certificates for large companies. With strong and steady growth, four years later, John slid out from behind the delivery truck wheel and began trading commodities full time.
During those same years, he and longtime friend Sam Devlin shared a love of duck hunting, taking many trips up Johns River, Elk River and the Humptulips, enjoying not only the hunting but also a variety of wooden duck boats. “He’s a small custom wooden boat builder, and we both were, and still are, really into duck boats,” said Shaw.
Away all boats
That shared love of custom-built boats led John to yet another career turn. In 1986, Devlin, who had participated in the annual Seattle Boat Show for several years, invited John to attend with him to help promote his products. “I really enjoyed that experience and decided to take six months off from my business and work with Devlin to learn how to build boats. We ended up working together for two years as his business grew.”
Under the Devlin Boat Building banner, in 1988, the two branched out to commissioning boats for PDE Enterprises, a company owned by two friends who were major players in Olympia area auto sales that had begun importing Taiwanese yachts.
Shaw and Devlin took delivery of 46’-50’ yachts off ships and readied them for their new owners.
One of their customers was Dick Houghton, owner of Houghton Distributing, a large fuel dealership in Aberdeen at the time, for whom they commissioned a yacht.
In 1989, Houghton discussed the possibility of building a cold molded and composite (vacuum laminated wood covered in fiberglass) 50’ sport fishing boat with Shaw and Devlin. After a year of kicking the idea around, Devlin decided he didn’t really want to go in that direction, so Houghton and Shaw moved forward on their own.
“Dick and I traveled down the west coast as far as Ensenada in search of the best place to site a boat yard and came to the conclusion that Aberdeen was a good fit for us for a number of reasons, including the fact that at that time there were a lot of high quality guys available who were displaced timber workers,” said Shaw.
Shaw Boats launched
The two officially launched Shaw Boats in 1990, with Houghton underwriting the financials and Shaw handling construction operations. They leased the defunct hake plant space at the mouth of the Wishkah River near the Gateway Mall where the Lady Washington had recently been completed for the 1989 state Centennial celebration.
Fateful interview
In early 1991, then Daily World Assistant City Editor Dee Anne Hauso, interviewed Shaw for an article on the newest shipyard in Grays Harbor. That encounter led to courtship and their marriage in 1994, followed by the birth of their son Gordon in 1998.
Business booms
Six months after construction began on their first boat, the new company landed a contract for a cold-molded Coast Guard certified 64’ catamaran excursion boat for a Hawaiian customer. They put the original project on the back burner and spent the next nine months building the catamaran.
While that project was in process, Barney Ridder of Knight-Ridder publishing fame contracted for a 45’ sport fishing boat. Again, that first boat was set aside. “It actually took us about three years to finally get that first boat built,” John said.
Move to Port
“Things really took off after those first two contract builds and we learned a lot. We soon had 45 guys working and needed to find a larger workspace, so we moved to Warehouse E at the Port of Grays Harbor in 1992,” said Shaw.
In 1994, The Port received a federal Displaced Workers grant that covered two-thirds of the construction costs for a new building directly across from the 28th Street landing. A lease charge threshold based on grant stipulations meant that Shaw Boats could afford to lease the new Building H, which allowed the company to grow even more.
Transition years
Shaw calls 1998 to 2000, the ‘transition years’ for Shaw Boats. “Dick was also growing his fuel distribution holdings at the time, partnering with Gary Forcum to form Pettit Oil. In 1998, he sold his share of the company to a former customer and friend, Joe Usibelli of Alaska.
“As we grew, I was stuck more and more in the office and what I really like is to be more ‘boots on the ground’.”
By 2000, Shaw says both partners were ready for a change, so he took a buyout and Shaw Boats was dissolved.
Expedition Boats
After a short foray into boat building in Louisiana, Shaw returned to the Northwest and found boat yard space in Newport, Oregon. He launched Pacific Expedition Boats in 2001 where, for nearly a decade, he built multihulls on contract, commuting home to Aberdeen on weekends.
“In 2012, with Gordon starting high school and the economy tanking, we made a family decision that I needed to be here fulltime, so I sold my designs and retired from boatbuilding.”
‘Relaxing’ in retirement
Retirement hasn’t turned out exactly the way Shaw envisioned it in 2012. “I was hoping to not be doing a lot for a while, but that didn’t turn out to be the case,” he said with a chuckle when asked what his retirement plan was at the time.
Rather than kicking back, Shaw jumped into volunteering with various organizations, among them the 7th Street Kids organization where his son participated in theatrical productions for three years, Grays Harbor Sea Scouts and the Aberdeen Museum of History.
Move to museum
Aberdeen Museum Executive Director, Dann Sears, who was also serving on the Westport South Beach Historical Society Board of Directors at the time, encouraged Shaw to apply for the then-open Westport facilities leadership position in late 2013.
“I was always very up front in the interview process that I was not into the idea of sitting in the museum going over the collections all day. I felt then and still do now that the group needs to get out and engage… sell itself,” said Shaw.
He was passed over by the board for an individual who held degrees in historical preservation. She decided the job wasn’t a good fit after four months. When approached shortly thereafter, Shaw said he was still interested in the executive director position and was hired in late 2014.
True to his strong work ethic and management style, Shaw hit the ground running, attending seminars and workshops on many aspects of non-profits in general, museum operations in particular, grant funding, volunteer recruitment, historical collections handling and more.
He also immediately put his ‘boots on the ground’ philosophy and mechanical, electrical and construction experience into practice by working enthusiastically by himself or alongside volunteers to clean, repair, troubleshoot and fix whatever problems presented themselves at both the museum and lighthouse buildings.
Now, with almost two years at the helm under his belt, Shaw says, “I’m having a great time. I especially like the history aspect. I grew up in a family that went to every museum from the serious ones to the balls of string and both my wife and I continue to have a fond appreciation of museums and history.”
Moving forward, Shaw says that he and the board are currently involved in strategic planning for the future to assure that both the museum and lighthouse continue to offer great maritime history educational opportunities and enjoyment for visitors and locals.
Efforts appreciated
“It is such a pleasure to work with John. He makes my job easier because I know I can count on him to get things done,” said Kimmi Kerns, current president of the Westport South Beach Historical Society board of directors.
“He sees the ‘big picture’ and his enthusiasm for the South Beach is infectious. He has such a positive attitude and is always looking for solutions and consensus instead of finger pointing and blaming. John has the ability to bring people with differing agendas together for the common good.”
“We have a great working relationship. And, he is an extremely hard worker. He’s like the Energizer Bunny. He keeps going and going and going. We are so lucky to have John as our executive director,” she added.
