Dolores Shaw, community leader and education advocate, dies at 64

Dolores Denise Shaw, 64, of Philadelphia, a community and parent leader who served as vice president of the Eastern Pennsylvania Organizing Project (EPOP), died Friday, April 3, of heart failure at Somerton Nursing & Rehabilitation Center in Northeast Philadelphia.

Although Ms. Shaw held modest jobs, including work for a uniform-rental company, and later relied on public assistance, she became a dynamic leader and outspoken advocate for public schools and neighborhoods.

“Public education was her passion, and she knew what needed to be done,” said Steve Honeyman, a past president of the now-defunct EPOP. “Dolores was a great agitator who was able to get parents in touch with their own anger so they could raise their voices and fight to improve schools for their children.”

EPOP began in 1992 as a faith- and parent-based group of North Philadelphia church congregations, and was organized to improve communities and schools, Honeyman said. Ms. Shaw was vice president from about 2003 to 2006.

One of EPOP’s successes was helping parents pressure the Philadelphia School District to build a new Frances E. Willard Elementary School at 1930 E. Elkhart St. in Kensington. The old school had been on a list of buildings to be replaced for seven years when a new construction program was launched in 2002.

“Willard might have languished on that list for many years more but for Willard parents’ work with the Eastern Pennsylvania Organizing Project (EPOP) and the Free Church of St. John’s in Kensington," the Philadelphia Public School Notebook wrote in 2007.

At the time, the original Willard, at Emerald and Orleans Streets, was nearly 100 years old. It did not have a library, gym, cafeteria, or handicapped access — and the only bathrooms in the four-story building were in the basement.

Tomás Hanna, a former Philadelphia school principal and deputy superintendent, said Ms. Shaw’s death was a huge loss.

“She was not only an advocate, but a teacher," he said. "It was clear we all worked for her. She made it easy, though never comfortable, because she was so clear regarding needs and expectations. We are all better and stronger for having known and worked with Dolores.”

In a 2003 interview, Ms. Shaw said she got involved with EPOP around 1995, when her two younger children were attending McClure Elementary in Hunting Park, and parents were upset because many children at the school weren’t reading well. With EPOP’s assistance, McClure parents set up a system to track how their children were progressing in reading.

In the following years, EPOP helped McClure reopen its library; assisted Sheppard Elementary in Kensington in establishing full-day kindergarten; and aided parents at Cayuga Elementary in Hunting Park in halting asbestos removal from the building while students were present.

“We realized as an organization that education and schools and families are the front line in what goes on in communities," Ms. Shaw told the Notebook.

Ms. Shaw was born in Brooklyn, N.Y., to Marguerite Shaw and Major Vandiver. She was her mother’s second child. At a young age, she came to Philadelphia, where she lived in Nicetown and graduated from Philadelphia High School for Girls. The mother of three later moved to Hunting Park.

“She was a typical old-fashioned mom; she helped with my homework,” said son Thaddeus. “And she thought of others before she thought of herself.”

He said his mother entered the Somerton nursing facility in February to undergo rehabilitation following surgery for a leg infection.

After his sister, Samantha, died of cardiac arrest on Feb. 24 at age 28, Thaddeus Shaw said, he signed his mother out of Somerton to attend her March 6 funeral. After that, he said, she fell ill and never recovered.

In addition to her son, Ms. Shaw is survived by son Daniel; four grandchildren; a brother; and other relatives and friends.

A funeral service was Thursday, April 9.