Seattle Times - July 13, 1992

Dr. Keith Wesley Shaw, who died of a heart attack July 8, 1992, didn't talk much but got a lot done in his 67 years.
At 19, he became a decorated Army Air Corps pilot and flew B-29 bombers over Japan during World War II. He flew over the battleship Missouri as part of the ceremony marking the surrender by the Japanese.
In 1956, he moved to Des Moines and established a successful osteopathic practice. From the time he was a medical student, he delivered about 2,000 babies.
In 1962, he clobbered an incumbent, became a city councilman in Des Moines and helped push for reforms in city management, including the writing of the town's first comprehensive plan.
He acquired nursing homes and made money when others felt they were unprofitable. He fathered six children. He twice took wife and kids on grueling drives up to Alaska, crossing hundreds of miles of dusty gravel roads. Another time, he took the family on a three-month drive around the U.S. - in a car, his children like to point out, without air conditioning.
"He was quiet," recalls a longtime friend, Bill Walker. "He didn't come on strong to people as a big, wide-open person. He wasn't shy. He just didn't want to be intrusive. He was very courteous."
His son, Chris Shaw, tells of vacations to meet relatives in Michigan. When the older Shaw men got together in a room, the only sound was of coins rattling around in their pockets. Occasionally, one of them would say something about the weather.
"He had a great sense of humor
He also was no pushover.
"Dad was fairly intense, really intelligent, and had a way of getting things done his way," says Chris Shaw, of Redmond.
Exception: Shaw told people he moved to the Northwest to hunt and fish. But he never hunted and he fished only twice - and was skunked at least one of those times, says Chris Shaw.
Most people would do the difficult drive to Alaska just once. But again the following summer?
"He hadn't seen enough mountains," says Chris Shaw. "He liked the open spaces. He had a pilot's mentality. He wanted to get away from people." "You had to know him," Chris Shaw says. "He had a stern presence if you didn't know him. Opinions too much different from his were not tolerated much. He had a sense of humor when he could relax."
A DEEP LOVE OF FLYING
A pilot all his life, Dr. Shaw loved to read books about flying and World War II. Part of the reason he did medical exams for pilots needing FAA certification was to swap flying stories.
With a partner, Dr. John Pearson of Woodland, Cowlitz County, he began investing in nursing homes and retirement centers and bought and sold eight of them.
Dr. Shaw was born in 1924 in Bay City, Mich., the son of Albert and Pearl Histed Shaw. He left high school to join the Army Air Corps and was stationed in Guam during World War II.
He graduated from the University of Michigan and the Kirksville (Missouri) College of Osteopathy and Surgery. His wife survives, Mary Lou Hoey Shaw. She is Orvilla Coles’ grand-daughter. Orvilla is sister to Walter Peter Coles.
Also surviving are his children Diane Shaw of Seattle; Pat Shaw of Sacramento; Tom Shaw of Plano, Texas; John Shaw of Des Moines; and Susan Shaw of Thornton, Colo. He also is survived by a sister, Carol White, of Dexter, Mich.; a brother, Alan Shaw, of East Lansing, Mich., two daughters-in-law and six grandchildren.