Gordon MacIver Shaw
11/18/1941-4/1/2025
Gordon MacIver Shaw, 83, was born and raised in Seattle, growing up and living in Burien, WA for most of his life. He passed away on April 1, 2025.
Living next to Highline High School, where the Performing Arts Center now stands, he often joked about not getting out of bed before the 1st bell rang! He graduated HHS 1959 and the UW, in Business Admin., in 1963. In 1964 he married his sweetheart Linda Lee, HHS 1958, and shared 54 years together until her death in 2017. They raised 3 children, Jeanne, HHS 1978, Carl, HHS 1984 and Brian HHS 1988, and shared the joy of 5 grandchildren, Brandon, Dylan, Mason, Logan and Hayden.
Gordon spent his business career as a freight forwarder, eventually he and Linda started their own freight business, Compass Consolidators.
After retiring from his freight forwarding business, he took an interest in Burien City Council, becoming a representative of the planning commission and a councilmember for 8 years, serving from 2004-2011. He strove to ensure the community that he had grown up in, and raised his family in, remained a wholesome community in which to live and work.
When the kids were young, he could often be found at a soccer field coaching the youth team, a swim meet yelling from the stands, or a baseball field coaching his boys and neighborhood kids. When the kids had kids, he gave up his coaching hat and became a dedicated baseball grandparent yelling encouragement from the stands. Rarely did he miss a Mariners game and loved sharing stats and player info with the grandsons.
“He was quite the man, a character’s character, as someone has said of him,” his daughter Jeanne told The B-Town Blog. “Never one to answer a question with just yes or no. If you weren’t careful with your question, a 20-minute explanation/lecture might be what you got! He never understood the concept of a ‘bumper sticker answer’ – 7 words Dad, 7 Words or less! And being the joker that he was, chose April 1 as his exit!”
In 2019, he and Carol A. Dennis, also a HHS 1959 graduate, celebrated a commitment ceremony and moved to Lynden WA, where he remained until his passing.
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My dad told me that it was just scary when it was your turn to hit a ball thrown from Gordie Shaw!
I had the pleasure of working for him at compass consolidating I cubed and loaded trailers. I was often yelled at by other senior employees to slow down. I am making the rest of them look bad.. Gordon commended me for my quick work and excellent forklift skills. I had the pleasure of being friends with his son Brian and taking him and his kid out to Seafair one year. It was a long boat ride from Three Tree Point, we always had good times.
RIP Gordon Shaw you’ll be missed