Friends of Winfred O. Shumway remembered him yesterday as a good Christian, a hard worker, and a gentleman.
Shumway, of 1146 South East St., died Sunday in the Hampshire County Long-Term Care Facility. He was 96.
"Everybody was Win's friend, everybody," said Stanley Ziomek, assistant town manager yesterday. "He was an outgoing,
friendly gentleman. He was a regular visitor to the coffee shops, and we all got friendly in the morning."
Shumway got his start as a market gardener with his father after graduating from Amherst High School and attending the
former Northampton Commercial College.
He spread his love for horticulture around the area. He planted flowers annually in the spring on the Amherst town common,
and in 1988, after a chemical fire wiped out countless gardens, Shumway donated more than 2,000 tomato plants to
Springfield gardeners.
"Win had talented fingers. I can remember his hands," Marjorie Atkins Elliott, a neighbor, recalled yesterday. "He grew
beautiful petunias. He did lots of nice things."
She recounted that during the Great Depression, Shumway and his late wife, the former Edith Livingstone, took in hoboes
and "treated them well."
She said a code was notched into the telephone pole in front of their house, telling other hoboes that "this is a good place."
Elliott also told of Shumway's adoption in 1915 of David Goodrich, a mentally retarded man who came from a large, poor local family.
The relationship between the two began one afternoon when Goodrich learned he had been held back in the first grade for the
seventh time, Elliott recounted.
"Win looked at him, took the slip that said he didn't pass, tore it up, and ground it in the soil," she said.
Goodrich then moved into the Shumway house, and they were inseparable for years until Goodrich died in 1984.
Shumway won Amherst's Distinguished Citizen Award for his care of Goodrich, and in 1983, he received the Humanitarian Award
of the American Association of Mental Deficiency for his dedication to Goodrich. He also received a Distinguished Service Award
in 1977 from the Chamber of Commerce, which he helped to form.
In 1979, the Police Department dedicated its policemen's ball to Shumway. He was a member of South Amherst Congregational Church
and a member and past master of the Amherst Grange.
In 1983, the Hartford Courant quoted the Rev. Arnold Kenseth of Southampton Congregational Church as saying of Shumway,
"He's a man who knows God from the good earth."
From 1946 until recently, Shumway was a school-bus contractor for the town. He also had driven for the South Amherst kindergarten.
Born in South Amherst, he was a constable there for many years.
Shumway was the husband of the former Edith Livingstone, who died in 1957.
He leaves a son, Wilbur "Bill" of Amherst; a daughter, Marion Onat of Spring Hill, Fla.; a sister, Doris Oyler of Columbus, N.C.;
eight grandchildren and several great-grandchildren.
The funeral will be Wednesday at South Amherst Congregational Church with burial in South Amherst Cemetery.
Douglass Funeral Home is in charge.
Calling hours at the funeral home are this afternoon and evening.
Memorial contributions ma
SOURCE: Union-News (Springfield, MA) - April 16, 1991
Steve Shumway - shumways@@petershumway.org
SSN # 015-22-3870
Massachusetts Death Index, 1970-2003
about Winfred O Shumway
Name: Winfred O Shumway
Certificate: 026097
Death Place: Northampton
Death Date: 14 Apr 1991
Birth Place: Massachusetts
Birth Date: 31 Jul 1894
Who is this family member?