Glenn Edmond Shaw

Glenn Edmond Shaw peacefully reached the end of his mortal life at age 86 on 28 February 2025 in Tucson, Arizona, at home surrounded by family. After spending the previous three weeks in home hospice care, he died from Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) and pneumonia.

Glenn was born on 5 December 1938 in the copper mining town of Butte, Montana, to Camille Cecile Shaw (DeCelles) and Joseph Edward Shaw. After attending St. Patrick’s Grade School and Butte High School, he married Gladys Roberta Culver who had caught his eye in summer school that he had to attend after not taking his homework seriously enough during a family trip. From an early age, he was intensely curious and often took apart his mother’s vacuum cleaner or explored things his father brought home from his company (the Butte Machinery Company). He also experimented with spark coils and electronics, including receiving a signal from the world’s first man-made satellite, Sputnik, in 1957. He served in the U.S. Navy (1957-1959), being stationed in Alameda, California after attending basic training in San Diego, California. During this time he was deployed for multiple months as an electronics technician on the aircraft carrier U.S.S. Bon Homme Richard (CV-31).

Following his navy service, Glenn attended Montana State College (now University) in Bozeman, Montana, earning a Bachelor of Science degree in electrical engineering in 1963. He then earned a Master of Science degree in electrical engineering at the University of Southern California while working at the Hughes Aircraft Company, Microwave Tube Division, in Los Angeles, California. He was quickly recognized as having a researcher’s mentality when he would interrupt his routine tube characterization tasks to investigate the cause of some unusual electronic behavior. He pursued that passion for research by enrolling in 1965 as a Ph.D. student at the University of Arizona in Tucson, Arizona. After alternating between astronomy and lightning research, he pivoted to a research problem involving optical measurements of aerosols, microscopic particles that create haze and constitute a critical component of weather and climate. He collaborated closely with the Institute of Atmospheric Physics to earn his Ph.D. in electrical engineering in 1971 at the University of Arizona, with a dissertation describing the use of a custom-designed instrument to remotely measure properties of atmospheric aerosols.

From 1971 to 2004 Glenn worked as a professor at the Geophysical Institute of the University of Alaska Fairbanks. The “GI” provided a perfect environment for his unique mixture of humor, social appetite, and scientific creativity, with an internationally eclectic (and often eccentric) mix of scientists. His research took him all around the world, literally from Pole to Pole. He is internationally recognized for scientific accomplishments that include the discovery of the source of“Arctic Haze” and the understanding that air pollution can travel around the world, as well as fundamental connections between aerosols and ocean biology that help stabilize Earth’s climate. He also taught classes that ranged from introductory astronomy to advanced atmospheric thermodynamics. Glenn was also an active member of the Rotary Club, believing deeply in the importance of partnerships between academia and the broader community.

Glenn’s life and personality had many dimensions. He had a great sense of humor, always playing practical jokes or making goofy faces and voices. He loved to tell his kids stories of fictional and real characters that included “Bear, Lamb, and Buffalo” and “a boy named Billy,” As an only child, he loved being the center of attention by making people laugh or entertaining them with colorful stories about his boyhood adventures at Farmer Blakeley’s cabin where he spent summers, about his hell-raising teenage years in Butte, about adventures chasing eclipses in Africa, about travels to Antarctica, and on and on. He was friends with everyone, from all walks of life, from all political parties, and from all faiths. He had an infectious enthusiasm for learning and for sharing the discovery process with his friends and family. He could outwalk many. His hobbies included reading history, photography and cameras, mathematics, collecting minerals, and restoring old cars. He had an emotional connection to all art, and spent time exploring galleries, admiring architecture, and reading poetry and classic literature. He especially loved music and would often choke up when listening to the likes of Beethoven. He loved to support the symphony in Fairbanks. For years he entertained his family and friends with the accordion, which he played without having to read music. He said he memorized all the songs as a child so he could think about other things while he practiced. Over the years he became an avid genealogist and took many trips to explore the lands of his forefathers, all across Montana, to the Bitterroot Mountains, to Michigan, Quebec, England, and Scotland, always in search of clues to the past. Perhaps most of all, Glenn loved nature, finding perfect balance between his aesthetic and scientific views of the world and the universe around him. He frequently took his family out to see stars, planets, and interesting things in the sky. He was especially fond of visiting the huge flocks of migrating birds at Creamer’s Field in Alaska. In his heart, Glenn had a deep faith in the divine and he lived by the golden rule, often quoting his Grandpa Ray’s adage to “be square.”

Glenn is survived by his wife of 67 years Gladys (Culver) Shaw and five children: Susan Higgins (husband Albert) of Prescott, Arizona; Joseph Shaw (wife Margaret) of Bozeman, Montana; Raymond Shaw (wife Amanda) of Houghton, Michigan; Glenn Shaw of Butte, Montana; and Sarah Shaw-Stahlke (husband Dan) of Hillsboro, Oregon. He also has fifteen grandchildren and numerous great grandchildren. He was preceded in death by his first son, Edward Joseph Shaw.

A funeral will be held at 1 pm Arizona time (12 pm Alaska Daylight Time, 2 pm Mountain, 4 pm Eastern, 8 pm UTC) on Saturday, 15 March 2025, at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, 1655 S. Melpomene Way, Tucson, Arizona. Remote participants can watch and listen on Zoom (https://zoom.us/j/95461523997?pwd=xqImmGaF3hKqeBMAks6gwofVPVfiYg.1).

An interactive online celebration of life will be held at 1 pm Arizona time on Saturday, 22 March 2025, through Zoom (https://us06web.zoom.us/j/81110936680).

In lieu of flowers, donations are encouraged to Rotary International.