CAROLYN JEAN SHAFFER

Carolyn J. Shaffer On July 15, 2015, Carolyn joined her loving husband of 51 years, Robert, who died on September 28, 2006. Born on October 28, 1931 in South Bend, Indiana, the third child of Victor and Miriam Kupferer, she spent 6th, 7th and 8th grades at three different schools in Pennsylvania during her father's service at the Marietta, PA Army Depot during WWII. When he was stationed in Tokyo after the end of the war, Carolyn and her mother returned to South Bend where Carolyn graduated from Central High in 1949.

She was a member of Pi Beta Phi sorority at Indiana University and graduated in 1953 with an AB in Fine Arts. Working in Yosemite during summers with college friends, she moved to California after graduation and attended the California School of Fine Arts in San Francisco for a year of graduate study. She had her first date with her husband, a writer / photographer for the Indianapolis Star, who was doing a picture story of Indiana girls who were working in Yosemite. After a long distance romance, they were married in June 1955. Carolyn worked as a commercial artist in Indianapolis until they moved to San Francisco in September 1957. After their son, Don, was born in 1960; Carolyn worked as a free-lance artist and bookkeeper for her husband's commercial photo studio, and later as a secretary bookkeeper for architects and engineers in San Francisco until she retired in 1999.

A member of Marin Society of Artists, Carolyn exhibited and sold many paintings after she, Bob and Don moved to Mill Valley in 1963. They enjoyed many vacations in the U.S. including return trips to Yosemite and other ski resorts. When Bob, her love and best friend died, Carolyn found living life alone difficult. She loved her son and his family deeply, but missed having Bob, her best friend and art critic.

Her son Don, his wife, Becky, and their children, Zachary and Toriana, of Fremont, along with many nieces and nephews, survive her.

In addition to her husband, Robert, Carolyn was predeceased by her parents and by her brother at age 23, an Air Force pilot stationed at Hamilton Air Force Base whose plane was lost at sea outside Stinson Beach during the Korean War. Her sister, Charlotte K. Ford of South Bend, Indiana predeceased her in May 2011. Carolyn and Bob's granddaughter, Kimberlyn, was sadly stillborn in 1998.

Carolyn requested no memorial service, only family burial next to her husband at Fernwood Cemetery in Mill Valley, CA. Donations may be made to the American Heart Association or the charity of your choice.

Published by Marin Independent Journal on Jul. 29, 2015.

03/01/2023 EJS