Carolton W Shaw

Carlton W. Shaw was born on 9-23-1925 and was raised on a grape farm in the small farming community in Eden, NY south of Buffalo. He passed away on June 29, 2015. Self-sufficiency was a way of life. His family in Eden raised chickens, hogs, maintained a Jersey cow and his mother canned homegrown vegetables, meat, pears and cherries. Music was stressed- all family members playing an instrument and playing the family orchestra.

He enlisted in the army at the age of 17 and entered Cornell University Army Specialized Training Program in June 1943. When ASTP programs were discontinued he was went to infantry tr4aining at Fort Benning GA, as a member of a mine Platoon in the 87th Infantry Division. In 1944 the division sailed on the Queen Elizabeth, landing I Scotland. There were attached to General Patton’s Third Army. The division went into battle in western France, forced marched to relieve the 82nd Airborne outside of Bastogne, Belgium, joining in the “Battle of the Bulge”. They then fought across Germany and ended in the Sudetenland Czechoslovakia.

Premedical education at Carleton College, Northfield, Minn. was made possible by working as lab assistant, carting for botany plants, and having the most coveted of all college jobs- washing dishes in the freshman girls dorm. This led to a medical degree at the University of Rochester Medical School, and internship and residency at the University of Colorado in Denver. Montana State College hired Dr. Shaw as a physician in the student Health Service in 1956. With the death of anesthesiologist Dr. Parke in 1958, Dr. Shaw headed the Anesthesia Department of Bozeman Deaconess Hospital in addition to serving in the Health Service until 1972. He retired in 1989 from the Same Day Surgery Center.

Dr. Shaw organized the Bozeman Respiratory Service with the first introduction of mechanical ventilation. He helped introduce to the hospital the first post-surgical recovery room, the muscle relaxant succinylcholine and fluothane, the explosive agents chloroform, ether and cyclopropane were then discontinued.

Dr. Shaw was especially appreciative of being an Anesthesiologist, jokingly called by Dr. Losee of Ennis “the place of honor” in surgery, being part of a fascinating exciting atmosphere most people could not experience.

Dr. Shaw met his wife, Sarah Jane, while climbing mountains on the front range of the Colorado Rockies with the Colorado Mountain Club. There were married in 1954. The have three children: Linda Meuret from Helena, MT, Timothy Shaw of Buda Texas, and Christopher Shaw of Winnemucca Nevada. Immediate relatives are Marion Tignor of Princeton, NJ and Grandchildren Conor and Mat Hogan, McKaelee, and McKaen Shaw, and Sarah and Syndnie and Russell Shaw. He had two great grandchildren emery and Olyn Hogan of Katie Texas.

Outdoor life with skiing canoeing snowmobiling and frequent family packtrips and rides into the mountains of SW Montana dominated their recreation. Sarah Jane’s ability to train horses led to raising and riding Arabian horses and Fox Trotters. Dr. Shaw and his wife were kept busy with ranch maintenance and putting up hay every summer. As Dr. Shaw’s parents had been unable to afford good farm equipment as he was growing up, Dr. Shaw indulged in having a well equipped shop to keep up four tractors and other farming equipment. He also made sure his children learned self-sufficiency and farm skills.

Participation in Bozeman community activities included working with an explorer Scout troop, attending as many musical events as possible, being charter members of the Gallatin Saddle Club, Do-ci-do Square Dancers, and Scottish Country Dancers. He attended many Tobacco Root Geology Society’s field trips and many Lewis and Clark’s trail Society’s activities.

Memorials can be sent in Carlton’s name to Bozeman Deaconess Hospital C/O Bozeman Deaconess Foundation, 431 Highland Blvd. Suite 3200 Bozeman, MT 59715.