Friends remember Fairfield’s ‘Renaissance man,’ Mark Shafer

FAIRFIELD – Fairfield lost one of its greatest historians this month when Mark Shafer passed away at the age of 73.

Shafer died on Dec. 17 at his home in Fairfield, a town where he spent his entire life and one he knew like the back of his hand. Shafer touched the lives of many people as an art teacher in the Fairfield Community School District, teaching at the elementary, middle and high school level. Despite contracting polio at age 5 that damaged his hands, arms and legs, Shafer was a gifted artist and a founding member of the Fairfield Art Association.

Upon his retirement from teaching in 2008, Shafer began a new chapter in life as the curator of the Carnegie Historical Museum, which he had been involved with for years. It was a perfect fit for Shafer, who possessed a vast reservoir of knowledge about Fairfield homes, businesses, its famous families, and everything in between.

Shafer’s funeral will be at St. Mary Catholic Church in Fairfield at 10:30 a.m. Friday, Jan. 6. Officiating will be Father Nick Adam, Father Stephen Page and Deacon Chris Kabat. Shafer was a member of St. Mary Catholic Church and Knights of Columbus. He also taught religious classes at St. Mary and St. Joseph’s Church.

Father Page, who got to know Shafer well during Page’s tenure as St. Mary’s pastor, called Shafer a local “Renaissance man” for his many talents.

“Very rarely do we have folks who not only still live in the place they were born, but who have also promoted [its] rich, unique history and also to welcome and integrate new people and interests, thus helping make Fairfield and to some extent also Jefferson County vibrant and versatile,” Page said.

TEACHER

After earning a bachelor of fine arts degree from the University of Iowa in 1971 and his teaching certificate from Parsons College in 1972, Shafer was able to secure a job as an art teacher in his hometown of Fairfield, starting as the elementary art teacher. Shafer stayed in that role for 10 years before transitioning to the middle school, where he taught another 10 years, before moving once more to the high school, where he taught for another 14 years.

Someone who knew Shafer during his time at the high school was Linda Mitcheltree, the vocal music teacher. The art and choir rooms were the only classrooms on the lower level at that time, so Shafer and Mitcheltree got to know each other well.

“He was a delightful person, one of the most positive, eloquent and clever people I have ever known,” Mitcheltree said.

Mitcheltree said Shafer liked talking to students about their artwork or other hobbies, and he had an uncanny ability to remember them all.

“He could hold facts like a filing cabinet,” she said. “He was always delighted to share a historical fact with you.”

Mitcheltree recalled that, despite Shafer’s physical limitations stemming from his bout with polio, he never once complained.

“Very seldom would he ask anyone to help him do anything, or help him move anything,” she said.

Mitcheltree said she was in the same class as Shafer’s brother Herb, and could tell the whole family was into history. Shafer liked talking with Mitcheltree and her husband about Native American artifacts in Van Buren County.

Ralph and Linda Messerli are another couple who knew Shafer well through his job as an art teacher. Linda was a secretary at Pence Elementary when Shafer was there, and Ralph was the high school principal when Shafer transferred there, too.

Linda also worked as a teacher associate at Pence, and she remembers visiting Shafer’s art classroom to check on students who were misbehaving.

“He had such control over the room, and the students loved him,” Linda said. “Mark was a fun person, and you wanted to be around him. He wasn’t a complainer, and you’d think that he’d have a lot to complain about. He only complained that he didn’t have enough pencils.”

When Shafer started teaching at the high school, Ralph said he liked visiting his classes just to see the cool projects he had lined up.

“Mark was outstanding,” Ralph said. “He knew a lot of the high school kids because he had them in elementary or middle school. He really expanded interest in our art program.”

Ralph said he asked Shafer if he was ready for high school students, because they can get quite “ornery.”

“He told me, ‘If you think I can’t handle the kids here, you won’t have to get rid of me. I’ll resign,’” Ralph said. “He was great. Whenever he had a problem with a kid, he handled it, and only rarely did I have to get involved. I was in his classroom frequently, and he did things in that class that turned kids around. He found a way to reach them, and I really appreciated that.”

ARTIST

Shafer had not yet graduated from high school when he became a founding member of the Fairfield Art Association in 1966, one year before his graduation from FHS. He went on to become the club’s vice president, and led art camps and classes through it.

Suzan Kessel, volunteer director at the Fairfield Art Association, was three years behind Shafer at FHS. Shafer was painting portraits even back then, and one of the teachers thought so much of his talent that they framed it to hang in their classroom. Kessel saw the painting and felt “very envious of this person’s talent.” Shafer went on to do many more portraits, especially of those people honored by the Fairfield Entrepreneurs Association.

Kessel echoed Father Page’s comment that Shafer was Fairfield’s “Renaissance man.”

“He was so brilliant on so many levels,” she said. “He was on the preservation commission. He created a walking tour of Fairfield. He could tell you every detail about every building and house in Fairfield.”

Kessel noted that Shafer wrote and illustrated a book called “Fairfield at the Turn of the Century.”

“He illustrated all these houses and buildings in Fairfield, and gave a history of each one,” she said. “It’s a treasured piece I reference all the time. In fact, we have an exhibit at the art association of his original drawings from that book.”

Kessel said Shafer was involved in hatching the idea of the William Coop statue in Fairfield’s Central Park, and for creating a statue to honor Lee Gobble outside the Fairfield Arts & Convention Center. Kessel said that, with Shafer’s passing, she worries that the town has lost one of its biggest history buffs.

HISTORY

Carnegie Historical Museum board member Dave Neff has known Shafer from his days at Parsons College, when Shafer was getting his teaching degree and Neff was teaching first aid. Over the years, they’ve become good friends and neighbors. Both Dave Neff and his wife Sheri Blough Neff are members of social clubs Wit and Wisdom, and Abracadabra, which Mark and Susan Shafer belonged to.

Neff got to work with Shafer at the Carnegie museum. He said that, for many years, Shafer and Gene Luedtke did a lot of the activities at the museum. After Luedtke passed away about three years ago, the rest of the museum board made a push to get new members to join. Around that time, the board added Dave and Sheri, along with Kathy Tollenaere, Therese Cummiskey and Joe Hunt. An assistant director, Jake Schmidt, joined the museum, too, and studied under Shafer.

Neff said that the first word that comes to mind when thinking of Shafer is “vision.”

“Mark could look at a display cabinet and see how it could be transformed to tell a story about the history of Fairfield,” Neff said. “Mark understood the need to preserve history. He did a painting of every Entrepreneur of the Year. He’s left his own history by taking what would otherwise be a photo and turning it into a piece of history.”

Joe Hunt was a member of the FHS Class of 1968, so he knew of Shafer, but it wasn’t until Hunt joined the museum board that he got to see Shafer’s personality. Before Hunt was on the board, Shafer reached out to him to see if he could provide information about a photo album from the Lamson family, which Hunt is a part of.

“Once he saw how interested I was, the next thing I knew, Mark had set the hook and I found myself on the board,” Hunt joked. “Mark was a gifted man with many talents. The museum was a big part of his life, and his knowledge of Fairfield history was amazing.”

Call Andy Hallman at 641-575-0135 or email him at andy.hallman@southeastiowaunion.com