Ms. SHAFFER, KAY to TAPS

Dr. Kay Laverne Shaffer of Newnan, Georgia, passed away Sunday, March 27, 2022.

     Kay was born on May 6, 1939, in Warren, Ohio to Robert George and Nina Lucille Webb Nagel. In 1944 her family moved to Provo, Utah, for her father to begin work as a rolling mill foreman in U.S. Steel Corporation’s brand-new Geneva Steel Plant. After World War II ended, they lived for a year in Torrance, California while the steel mill was being converted to peacetime production and then returned to Provo. In 1948, her family moved to Pleasant Grove, Utah and she graduated from Pleasant Grove High School in 1957. After her freshman year at the University of Utah (which included membership in Alpha Phi Sorority, working in the University’s yearbook staff, and serving with the Air Force ROTC Sponsors unit) and another year as a full-time bank bookkeeper, Kay married Richard (‘Dick’) Shaffer of American Fork, Utah, in 1959. In 1963, Kay graduated Magna Cum Laude from the University of Utah with a Bachelor of Science degree in Business, having worked full-time for three years as a departmental secretary for the Army ROTC Department and then one year as a part-time administrative assistant for a College of Business research unit while completing her degree. She returned to school years later, earning a Master of Science degree in Urban Studies with a National American Humanics Certification in Youth Agency Administration from Georgia State University, Atlanta, Georgia in 1979. In 1994, she earned a PhD in Sociology from Emory University in Atlanta. Her doctoral dissertation concerned managerial skills gained from doing volunteer work and involved interviews with several managers and staff members at various levels of some of Atlanta’s leading companies.

     After their joint graduations in 1963 from the University of Utah, Kay accompanied her husband to Ft Benning, Georgia for his initial Army training and their daughter Nina was born there. When Nina was just seven weeks old, they traveled to West Berlin, Germany for Dick’s first permanent military assignment. Dick’s later assignments included Yuma Proving Ground, Arizona (their son Scott was born in Yuma); Fifth Special Forces Group in Nha Trang, South Vietnam (Kay and the children stayed in Yuma Proving Ground during that year); Ft. Benjamin Harrison in Indianapolis, Indiana; and finally, Ft. McPherson, Georgia. During those years, Kay was an active volunteer in officer’s wives’ clubs, Army Community Service, post chapels, civilian churches, and Cub Scout and Girl Scout volunteer work.

     After working in several part-time jobs, she re-entered the full-time paid work force in 1979 when she accepted a position with the Georgia Career Information Center at Georgia State University in Atlanta. She retired as Assistant Director of the center in August 2000 after over twenty years of a most satisfying career, helping to establish the center initially and working in various research and support roles of the years thereafter (including teaching at the University as an Adjunct Assistant Professor of Urban Studies). Over the years Kay was an active member of the East Point and Morrow Presbyterian Churches, as well as Cornerstone United Methodist Church after their move to Newnan in 2004.

     Kay’s Girl Scout volunteer roles included that of leader, service unit director, acting day camp director, and council trainer; she also served on numerous council committees for the Northwest Georgia Girl Scout Council (now the Girl Scout Council of Greater Atlanta) including chairing the first Gold Award Scholarship Committee. In 1982, she was one of the founding members of the Northwest Georgia Trefoil Guild, a Girl Scout Alum group, and served in numerous leadership roles for the organization over the years.  Her most satisfying volunteer role was that of helping other Girl Scout volunteers to carry out their important leadership roles with girls through her work as a council trainer.  Ultimately, she served as a GSUSA nationally certified Instructor-of-Trainers for the council.

    Kay and Richard enjoyed traveling together on many trips during the military years and long after. They also cherished the many family trips to Disney World as the grandchildren grew up. Kay was an avid genealogist and was always in the search of new family stories to fill in the gaps where family members lives were unknown. She was a great researcher and our family sleuth.  

     Kay is survived by her husband of 63 years, Richard, her daughter, Nina Shaffer Stubbs (Jay), of Newnan Ga, her son, Scott Shaffer of Atlanta, her sister Janet Nagel and niece Katherine Nagel of Lawrenceville, and grandchildren, Mitchell Stubbs of Statesboro Ga, Jessica Stubbs of Beulaville, NC, and Ian Stubbs of Newnan Ga.

In lieu of flowers – donations to the American Cancer Society or your favorite charity would be appreciated.