A Life Rooted in Love and Learning
Love is not the first thing that comes to mind when you think of a garden. But for Eugenie and Jon Shaw, gardening became the common thread that brought them together and has continued to shape a life rich in purpose, curiosity, and connection.
Eugenie, a retired teacher and librarian, was born in 1938 on the coast of Norway. Just before her second birthday, her parents fled the German invasion and resettled on a farm further inland, a common arrangement for clergy in the State Church. Some of her earliest memories are unsettling. German soldiers searched for her father after he refused to register with the Nazi party; luckily, he was never found. Despite this, Eugenie’s childhood held many happy moments too. Life on the farm taught Eugenie to tend gardens, pick berries, and milk cows.
Jon was born and raised in Sandwich. When he was eleven, his father, who served in the Army Air Force, was killed in a fatal air crash. As an only child, Jon developed a deep sense of duty and loyalty to his mother.
Jon attended high school in Belmont, Massachusetts, earned his undergraduate degree at Harvard, and completed his master’s degree at the University of Minnesota. He later lived and taught in Ghana for a year before returning to the United States to teach at Brunswick School, a private boy’s school in Greenwich, Connecticut.
There, Jon met Eugenie, a fellow teacher he describes as beautiful, sweet and intelligent. Eugenie describes Jon as intelligent and supportive. Gardening quickly emerged as a shared passion and lasting bond.
The couple married and raised two children, their son Jonathan and their daughter Melanie. Family life was filled with games, puzzles, shared vacations, and summers in Sandwich, with gardening woven naturally into everyday life.
After a period living in Norway, the family returned to Newton, Massachusetts. At forty, Jon changed careers and became Director of the New England Wildflower Society, while Eugenie worked in Boston at Wheelock College as Director of the Resource Room.
Jon’s work later led them to Florida, where he served as Director of Bok Tower Gardens. Eugenie spent her early years there volunteering before taking on a librarian position, a role she held for the final nine years of their time in Florida.
In 1998, after fifteen years away, the Shaws returned home to Sandwich. Their house, a gift to Jon’s great grandmother from her groom, has been in the family since 1857 and is now in the care of Jonathan and Melanie. The home holds generations of stories, many uncovered through Jon’s interest in genealogy.
Nearly sixty two years after becoming the Shaws, their shared love of plants and learning is still evident. There is pride in Eugenie’s voice as she speaks of Jon’s work at Bok Tower Gardens. Most evident of all is the love and respect that continue to grow between them here at Decatur House.
