The world lost a lifelong dedicated civil servant this week with the passing of the prominent and highly active Republican Linda Shaw, who served as the commissioner for District 3 in Guilford County for 16 years and served the community in so many other ways as well.

Shaw was the widow of former Guilford County commissioner and state senator Bob Shaw, who died in April 2012.

Years later, she gave a great deal of love to a puppy she adopted, one that constantly delighted her.  She often texted out pictures of her dog to her friends and family.

Linda Shaw wasn’t just active locally in the Republican Party – she spent more than 50 years in Republican Party politics, where she was prominent at the local, state and national level.

She served on the Republican National Committee, including four years as the secretary of that committee.

Shaw took her seat on the Guilford County Board of Commissioners in 1998 and served for 16 years before deciding not to run for reelection in 2014.

When she joined the board, she replaced Joe Bostic as the representative for much of the northwest part of the county.

Chairman of the Guilford County Board of Commissioners Skip Alston and Shaw had some major disagreements and some heated verbal exchanges early on; however, years later the two gained mutual respect for each other and worked together well on many important county initiatives.

In the early, 2000’s, the Board of Commissioners had 11 members – now it has nine – and that group would often argue late into the night in very intense ways.  Those boards were nothing like the constantly cooperative Board of Commissioners running the county today.

In August of 2002, Alston and Shaw engaged in one of the most famous incidents in the modern political history of Guilford County. They were arguing over a matter during a meeting and, after that meeting, there was a very heated confrontation between the two. They were shouting at each other on the first floor of the Old Guilford County Court House and Shaw threw a cup of water on Alston. Shaw filed a disorderly conduct charge against Alston the next day and he, in turn, filed a countersuit.

Theoretically, they each could have gotten a month in jail if found guilty; however, the two later made up and dropped their charges against each other.

At that time, Mike Barber was the chair of the Board of Commissioners and he had some rough months running the board while the two were feuding.

Years later, Alston and Shaw could laugh about the incident and they had buried the hatchet so deep that neither one of them even liked for people to bring it up.

On Monday, March 17, after her death, Alston had nothing but praise for his former fellow commissioner.

“She was a real servant of the people at both the local and national level,” Alston said.

“Linda was fair and, though we disagreed in a lot of ways, we later worked very well together,” he said.

Alston added that Shaw was a very competent and tough political opponent.

“She really stood her ground,” Alston said.

“We had our little incident,” he noted, adding quickly that, years later, they worked together closely when he was chairman and she was vice chair.

Shaw had some frustrating years on the board –especially in the early 2000’s when the Democrats held a 6-to-5 majority and at times it seemed like every vote was a 6-to-5 loss for the Republican commissioners.  After losing a vote, Shaw would often shout out, “Six to five, six to five – it’s always six to five!”

Shaw started out in Republican Party politics as a local precinct worker, and, in the 1964 presidential election, she was a “Goldwater Girl” – part of a group of young women who supported Republican candidate Barry Goldwater and conducted a major campaign and mailing effort on his behalf.

Shaw moved up the party ranks until she gained party prominence on a national level.

She eventually went on to serve as chairwoman of the Guilford County Board of Commissioners. In 2013, she decided not to seek another year as chairwoman after being on the board, and Republican Bill Bencini of High Point became chairman of the nine-member board following her.

At the time she decided to leave the board, she issued the following statement, “This decision was extremely difficult because I love representing the people of District 3 as a member of the Guilford County Board of Commissioners and advocating for the things that I believe are important to them…It is time for me to not seek re-election so that others may participate in these worthwhile positions.”

While serving on the Board of Commissioners and afterward, Shaw dealt with some major back problems; but that didn’t keep her from public service: She was appointed to the Piedmont Triad Airport Authority board and, in that position, oversaw operations of the airport.

Originally from Jamestown, Shaw attended Jamestown High and High Point Central before studying Criminal Justice at Jones Business School and Salemberg Academy and later became a major political force in the Republican party.

She will be greatly missed.

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