Ozzie Shaw, the father of the Linn County Parks System, died on Dec. 29.
“Ozzie, literally, he is known as the father of the county parks system,” said county Parks Director Brian Carroll. In 1959, Shaw went to the Board of Commissioners and asked to create a county parks system.
As Carroll understands it, one of the commissioners pulled a $5 or $10 bill from his pocket, handed it to Shaw and told him to go start a new parks system.
“One of the neat things was his timing, said County Commissioner Roger Nyquist. “He pushed for a county parks system in a time that you could get things off the ground like that.”
Today, there would be no chance for someone trying to start a parks system from scratch, he said.
“Ozzie was always interested in scenic parks,” wrote Mona Waibel in a column about Shaw, which appeared in The New Era in 2012. “He told locals they need parks to show our great beauty, to camp, to fish and do water activities. It was Ozzie who pushed the county government and Sweet Home citizens to develop parks. He shared his ideas with anyone who would listen.”
Shaw was a “visionary” behind the Linn County Parks System, which has benefited the public for more than 50 years, Nyquist said.
“The public will be benefiting from his efforts 100 years from now,” he said. “He is just a great guy. My thoughts are with his family.”
Carroll noted that Shaw was one of the founding members of the Parks Commission, on which he served for “55 to 56 years.”
“Everything it is today is due to Ozzie Shaw.”
Nyquist said he was grateful for the opportunity to be involved in October 2014 in naming Shaw “Parks Chairman Emeritus for Life,” honoring his 50-plus years of interest and passion for Linn County and its parks.
“How many of us do anything but live their lives for 56 years?” Carroll asked. That kind of volunteerism marks Shaw as a member of “a generation of people that were selfless in their actions.”
Shaw was behind the creation of the county forest, about 125 acres of forest land managed for timber production to help pay for parks projects, Carroll said. He would watch foreclosed and abandoned forest property and then ask the Board of Commissioners to set it aside.
The Waterloo Park expansion and River Bend Park received funding from the county forest, Carroll said. Shaw was instrumental in obtaining the donation of land that became John Neal Memorial Park near Lyons. It was Linn County’s first park.
He made a difference, Carroll said. “He wasn’t just someone who just showed up.”
It remained that way for more than five decades.
“As the parks came,” wrote Waibel, “it would be Shaw that was asked to dedicate the new parks with all its facilities. One by one, our east Linn County has developed and built many fine parks – nearly 20 when you count the boat ramps.”
Milt Moran, current Parks Commission chairman, said Shaw had been active in the most recent parks activity.
He had been heavily involved with the reworking of camping around Green Peter Reservoir after the Corps of Engineers ended dispersed camping along the lake.
“I learned a lot from him,” Moran said. “He was a good guy to talk to, a good guy. He was a great pioneer in Linn County Parks.”
“His presence will be missed,” Carroll said.