From Single Truck to Lasting Gift: The Shaw Family Legacy
When Jack Shaw left Ōpōtiki District High School at thirteen he could barely read, yet opportunity was already calling. Jack spent his spare evenings learning to read. By nineteen he had purchased a Bedford lorry and landed a morning contract transporting labourers to the Ōpōtiki Dam.
Each night he scrubbed concrete off the deck, bolted the canopy back on, and prepared for the next run. Weekends saw him driving the same truck across the North Island, shifting households to new beginnings while his wife, balanced the ledger from the passenger seat.
That hard-working routine—mahi at the forefront, whānau close behind, and community wherever they could help, eventually led the Shaws to Tauranga in the early 1960s. Jack bought a modest freight firm and added value wherever he could. He built a depot on Courtney Road, and repurposed retired buses into ferrying Kaimai Tunnel crews, and turned a gravel pit into a fill site, later an orchard, and finally residential lots. Whenever equipment or land sat idle, Jack found a way to keep it earning.
While Jack led the operation, Aileen’s counsel was always close at hand. Even after being diagnosed with breast cancer at forty-five, after an 18-year remission, she passed away at 66. Her experience guided jack’s support for Waipuna Hospice, and when Jack survived seven heart stents, he added the Heart Foundation to their list of causes.
Life on the harbour meant regular donations to Coastguard Tauranga and the Philips Search & Rescue Helicopter Trust. They never chased headlines, as Jack cared for results, not applause, so most gestures were known only to those they helped.
Stories of Jack’s quiet help still circulate around the Bay. Neighbours recall trucks arriving unannounced to clear storm-damaged trees and several tonnes of playground sand delivered free to local schools. In December 2023, the Shaw whānau turned their generosity into a named endowment fund with the Acorn Foundation. Rather than write a single cheque, they chose to invest the capital in perpetuity and distribute between 3.5% - 5% of its value every year.
The Shaw Family Endowment now channels steady support to four frontline charities that Jack valued deeply. At sea, Coastguard Tauranga’s 60-plus volunteers remain on call around the clock, saving lives and keeping their new rescue vessel ready for action. In the air, the Philips Search & Rescue Helicopter launches from Tauranga to reach accident sites and rural patients in minutes. On the ground, Waipuna Hospice walks alongside patients and families facing life-limiting illness, offering specialist care and support at no cost. And across the Western Bay, St John Tauranga & Mount Maunganui delivers urgent ambulance care day and night, thanks to the commitment of their paid officers and volunteers.
Steady, long-term backing from the Shaw Family Endowment will keep rescue boats patrolling, helicopters primed for lift-off, and hospice nurses at patients’ bedsides. Jack passed away in 2020. His imprint still threads through the Western Bay. Through the Shaw Family Endowment, that philosophy will keep working, and caring for our community, long after the last Shaw truck is parked for good.