SPRINGDALE -- Business leaders and friends say Northwest Arkansas lost a gentleman entrepreneur with the death Sunday of Willis Dean Shaw.
Shaw, 95, was the founder of Willis Shaw Express, a trucking company that pioneered hauling of live poultry in the 1930s then frozen poultry in the 1940s. The company, now owned by Comcar Industries, is still headquartered in Elm Springs where it began as Shaw Produce in 1938.
"Mr. Shaw was admired and respected in the community," said Don Gibson, president and chief executive officer for Legacy National Bank who worked at Willis Shaw Express for seven years. "People described him as a man of high integrity."
Shaw, along with people such as Harvey Jones and John Tyson, helped create the building blocks of the Northwest Arkansas economy, said Perry Webb, president and chief executive officer for the Springdale Chamber of Commerce.
"They helped set the tone for entrepreneurship in Northwest Arkansas," Webb said.
Jerre Van Hoose, former Springdale mayor, said he knew Shaw through his son, Bob, who was one of Van Hoose's best friends.
"He was a gentleman of all gentlemen and a visionary before his time," Van Hoose said.
"Mr. Shaw would always help you if he could," said John George, whose father, Luther George, was also a leader in the Springdale community.
Shaw also served the community with his work for education, Gibson said. Shaw, who was on the Springdale School Board for 10 years, would load Elm Springs children in the back of his trucks and haul them to school when buses were not available, he said.
The Springdale School District named an elementary school in his honor, said Jim Rollins, superintendent.
"When I told him we were naming it after him, he was at the building site the next day," Rollins said. "When the school opened, he was the first person at the door to see what it looked like."
Shaw developed deep ties with the school, Rollins said.
"He was always looking to the future, to see how the school could be improved," Rollins said.
Shaw was also on the boards of First National Bank of Springdale, Springdale Memorial Hospital, Rodeo of the Ozarks and the Bank of San Francisco, according to his obituary. He was a member of the Beaver Lake Development Board, which was instrumental in development of Beaver Lake. He was named to the Arkansas Business Hall of Fame in 2009.
Shaw's family was important to him, Gibson said, especially his wife, Helen Lorene Shaw, who died in 2010.
"It's hard for me to think of him without his wife, Lorene," Gibson said. "They were a couple who always worked together. They were married over 70 years."
A memorial service for Shaw will be at 1 p.m. Friday at First United Methodist Church, 206 W. Johnson St. in Springdale.
NW News on 04/22/2014