Robert And Tamara Shaw

Tamara “Tammy” Shaw (born Findlay) left this world on July 22, 2024, in the rolling, tree-lined hills surrounding Spencer, ID, at 60. The love of her life, Robert Alan Shaw, joined her a few days later, on July 28, 2024, passing peacefully, surrounded by family, at the Eastern Idaho Regional Medical Center in Idaho Falls, ID, at 69. They died doing what they loved, returning from the last of many great motorcycle adventures crisscrossing North America. Their family is eternally grateful for the care and kindness of the EIRMC’s intensive care unit nurses and doctors during Rob’s last days.

Rob was born in Raymond, AB, Canada, and raised in Taber, AB. Tammy was born in Marville, France, to Canadian parents. She was born to wander, being raised in a military family and living in France and Germany for a while before they settled in Cold Lake, AB. Rob did his own wandering when he left for college, dipping his toe into the waters of Brigham Young University, then Ricks College before finishing his studies at the University of Lethbridge, where he met the woman he would spend the rest of his life with. Tammy knew right away that Rob was the one for her, even though she would need to “train” him out of some old-fashioned habits. They were married in Cardston, AB, on February 16, 1985.

Soon after, they started wandering together. They moved to Pocatello, ID, while Rob studied to be an audiologist, then to Rapid City, SD, then back to Taber, before settling just outside Ogden, UT, in Farr West. While these moves were practical, Tammy and Rob did not like to sit still. Once all the kids were grown, they started traveling again. As avid divers, they explored the waters surrounding Belize, Fiji, Hawai’i, and Trinidad and Tobago with Tammy’s family. Their motorcycle adventures took them to the Grand Canyon, Route 66, Nauvoo and Carthage, IL, and much of the Eastern American seaboard, from Florida to Nova Scotia, just to name a few. They collected sand from every beach they visited to keep the ocean close and often joked with the kids that they would sell the house in Farr West without warning and live on a boat off the California coast for the rest of their days.

More important to them than travel, and second only to their faith as members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, was their love for helping children. Working for the Utah Schools for the Deaf and Blind, Rob traveled across the state to test children’s hearing, helping to prevent and treat hearing loss. Tammy got a master’s degree in Math Education and taught math for the Weber County School District for many years before certifying to teach Special Education. She was excited for a new role as the head of the special education department at Mountain View Junior High School in West Haven, UT, which she was supposed to start in the Fall. When told of Tammy’s passing, Mountain View’s principal said, “We will, of course, find someone else to fill the role. But there’s no replacing Tammy.”

While they were busy caring for other people’s children, they still had plenty of love left over for their own. They never missed a dance recital or a hockey or football game. Christmases were multi-day affairs with enough food for an army and tireless traditions, from lighting the Christmas pyramid and reading scripture to elaborately wrapped gifts (the last one including puzzle pieces wedged into a bag of flour) that often contained little more than a six-pack of Dr. Pepper. Countless hours watching The Biggest Loser, CSI: Miami, and football and basketball games where Rob would rattle off facts about the players. Game nights where chaos reigned. Learning to drive stick. Epic Nerf battles. Teaching carpentry skills. Regular road trips to Canada starting at 5 am. A bedtime story, told often, where Rob once took off his expensive basketball shoes to play a game, only to have them stolen. (This story would come full circle when his son got his expensive shoes dirty and, fearing he would get in trouble, threw them in a dumpster on his way home.) Tammy and Rob loved their grandbabies like their own kids and took every chance they could to babysit. Even after the kids left the house, a visit home promised never to be brief. They could, and did, talk to you for hours, but if you didn’t want to talk, that was okay, too. They just wanted you there.

Tammy and Rob’s faith as members of the LDS Church was unshakeable, and they showed it in many ways, big and small. Described by ward members as a “power couple,” they checked in on church members regularly and always welcomed a visit. Tammy, who loved crafts and scrapbooking, sent beautiful, handwritten cards to thank church members for their kindness and wish sick or grieving members well. Rob served a mission in Anaheim, CA (he joked with Californians who had never seen snow that a ten-foot wall of it lined the Canadian border) and as a bishop in Farr West. Tammy and Rob also served an urban mission together in Ogden. Sometimes, their compassion stretched hundreds of miles. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Tammy once ordered food to be delivered to her isolated nieces and nephews in Alberta, something their mom, Tammy’s sister, admits she didn’t even think to do.

Rob is predeceased by his mother and father, Janice and Alan, and leaves behind his brothers, Derek and Randy, as well as his sisters, Karen, Ranae, and Darlene. Tammy leaves behind her mother and father, DeMoine and Joyce, and her sisters, Lisa, Lianna, and Christy. They live on in the hearts of many, especially their children: Kyrie and her husband, Josh; Ryan, his wife, Gina, and the grandbabies, Brenden and Damien; Clayton and his wife, Brookelle; and Cassidy. Anyone who knew and loved Tammy and Rob is welcome to join us to honor their memory on August 10, 2024, at 11:00 am at the LDS Church house at 2565 West 3300 North in Farr West, UT.

We greatly appreciate any donations you can make to help pay for the service and medical expenses. Please send donations to https://www.gofundme.com/f/94cu2-support-for-the-shaw-family/ or through Venmo using @shaw_kids.