I met Frank Shaw when I looked into the eyes of a giraffe one day at the Wild Animal Park in San Diego. I remember resting under a palm tree overlooking their sanctuary when all of the sudden, this nineteen-foot tall behemoth ambled toward me.
Without missing a beat, our eyes locked into a place void of space and time and it felt as if a secret teaching was being handed down to me. It wasn’t until I physically met Frank that I understood the impact of this meeting with the giraffe, after I had secured a position with CircAid® Medical Products.
Ten years later, I stand before you to tell you what I have come to learn about this man and his love of family and passion for life.
If one word could describe Frank, it would be "nurturing". If you have ever known Frank, either directly or indirectly, I am sure that you have felt it.
Friends and family have been warmed by his presence while he painted vividness into every recall of recent travels; renowned physicians attending vascular and lymphedema conferences were drawn to his quiet, yet convincing nature while his litanies beseeched their better judgment to go beyond established protocol and treatment options to consider his patented device; vendors, sewers, and honored employees know the product they make and sell are for the common good and well-being of those afflicted and suffering from circulatory conditions – just like Frank had known all along; and finally; the hundreds of thousands of patients, let alone their caregivers, clinicians, and therapists that are using some form or model of a CircAid® product based on Frank’s concept of a giraffe’s non-elastic skin.
The Shaw’s have carried the nurturing legacy of creative expression through inventiveness and education as far back as Frank’s mother, Marion, a schoolteacher, and father, Heber, an electrical engineer. Marion had even taught Frank’s wife, Hertha, her high school English class in the city of Everett, MA (before Frank and Hertha, would have ever fallen in love with each other).
Of course, the rest, as they say, is beloved romantic history when Frank and Hertha realized that they were the twinkle in each other’s eye. That spark lasted for over 63 years of marriage.