c l a s s n o t e s |
Mr. Shaw stands against the backdrop of his completely functioning model of the USS Howard DDG-83.
But I committed the cardinal sin in my model carrier. One should pick a year in the life of the ship and build it to those specs, because these ships change — as well as the aircraft. Being the first of its class, many mistakes were made in construction of the USS Forrestal CV 59. Over its 42-year life, many things were corrected, so the ship looks totally different now than when it was built. My wife, Syd, and I did fundraising shows for the Navy for 22 years. The Navy brass let me do anything I wanted, which included photographing and riding on the ships when they were available. Every time I came from a trip, I would develop the film and change the model as they did the real one. I have spent over 30 years — and over 30,000 hours — on my model of the USS Forrestal CV 59. To make it worse, the aircraft changed four or five times during this period (and I have over 400 planes to prove it!). I graduated from Williston in 1948 after spending four years in the Junior School, and four years in the Upper School. I believe I was the only one in my class to attend Williston for the full eight years. I then attended Hobart College for three years before decid-
ing to transfer to Hofstra University. At this time the Korean War broke out and I was drafted, so I enlisted in the Navy. After boot camp, I went to sonar school in Key West for two months. Then the only ships with sonar were destroyers; I was assigned to DD 668 and served in Korea for three years. Upon returning home, I had one year left in the Navy and married my wife, Syd. We have been married for 59 years, and we have three children and nine grandchildren. My first job was with the couture designer Hattie Carnegie in late 1954. A year later, I joined the firm of Jane Derby, another couture dress company, and in 1964, Oscar de la Renta joined the firm. Oscar and I bought out the existing partners, and it became Oscar de la Renta, Ltd. We had a wonderful career together for over 30 years. Oscar did the design, I ran the business, and Syd ran our sales force. We did over 100 shows a year throughout the U.S. Anyway, I am still building working models: a 12-motor mobile crane, a tugboat, a 1/6 scale army jeep and half track, a Tiger 88 tank, and many more. For me, it beats watching TV.
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A view of the Howard from the bow shows the enormous scale of the ship; those blue and yellow figures are people.
The intricacy of Mr. Shaw’s work can be seen in this close up of the command deck of the USS Missouri BB-63. spring 2013 Bulletin 33