Edward Shaughnessy Jr.

Ed Shaughnessy, a fixture for decades in Frederick County business and community circles, died Wednesday with family at his side at The Health Care Center at Homewood Farms after a long illness.

He is survived by his loving wife and closest friend of 58 years, Mary, eight children and15 grandchildren.

Mr. Shaughnessy was born April 29, 1928 in Chicago, the son of Edward F. Shaughnessy, Sr. and Joan Schmitz Shaughnessy.

He was educated in Chicago Catholic schools and was graduated from St. George High School, where he was a member of the school’s championship football team, in 1946.

That summer he joined the United States Marine Corps where he worked, during two tours of duty as a weather observer and a crane operator until his honorable discharge as a sergeant in 1952 with a World War Two Victory and Good Conduct medal.

On June 14, 1952, he married Mary Loyola Culhane, a young woman he’d attended kindergarten with years before and was later introduced to on a blind date. It wasn’t until one of their youngest children was enrolled in the same kindergarten that they realized they’d met long before that blind date.

In 1954 he was graduated with honors from the University of Notre Dame in South Bend, IN with a Bachelor of Science in Accounting.

He returned to Chicago where he worked for six years at Arthur Andersen and Co. as an auditor and manager.

After several other financial positions in Chicago area companies, Mr. Shaughnessy moved his wife and eight children to Frederick in 1969 to become the Vice President and Director of Operations at Eastalco Aluminum Co. from its opening until his retirement in 1986.

During his tenure at Eastalco where he managed the company’s accounting operations, Mr. Shaughnessy earned the nickname “Mad Dog” by his coworkers, more for his gruff bark than any perceived bite. Shaughnessy also oversaw the operations of the company’s pier in Baltimore’s Dundalk neighborhood and of the company-owned farms around the plant in Buckeystown. He once boasted that he’d sold half of the farms’ corn crop on the commodity exchange at the year’s peak price.

Mr. Shaughnessy was active in Frederick area community organizations. He served on the Board of Trustees of the YMCA of Frederick County from 1972 until 1976.  He was on the Board of the United Giver’s Fund of Frederick County from 1974 until 1979.  He also served on the Board of Trustees of Goodwill Industries of Frederick County from 1981 until 1987.  And he was a member of the Frederick Memorial Hospital Board of Trustees from 1982 until 1987, where he served as Chairman of the Finance Committee in 1984 and 1985 and as the Board Treasurer from 1985 through 1987.  And from 1985 to 1993 he was Chairman of the Frederick County Interagency Internal Audit Authority.

The community work he appeared to take most pride in was his time at the Soup Kitchen on Market St.  where he served hot meals to people he referred to not as the poor or the needy, but as his “clients.”
Along with his wife, Mr. Shaughnessy is survived by eight children: Joan Marie Shaughnessy  of Lexington, Va; Edward Francis III, his wife Tricia and their daughter Mary Catherine of San Antonio, Texas; Ann Shaughnessy DuChane, her husband Greg and their children Marianne and Joseph of Fredericksburg, Va; John Patrick, his wife Barbara and their sons Michael, Peter, Timothy and David of Rye, NY; Catherine Shaughnessy Brennan, her husband John and their children Edward,  Clare  and Kevin of Okemos, Mich.; his son Lawrence Aloysius, his wife Linda and their children Lawrence, Jr., Emily and Bridget of Germantown, MD; Vincent James of Baltimore and Monica Shaughnessy Henderson, her husband William and their children Anna and James of Baltimore.

He is also survived by his sister, Sr,  Rosemary Shaughnessy BVM of Dubuque, Iowa, and his brothers,  David Charles Shaughnessy of  Willmette, Ill. Terrence Joseph Shaughnessy of Arlington Heights Ill. and The Rev. Thomas Peter Shaughnessy CSC of Omaha  Neb. as well as many nieces and nephews.

He was an active member of St. John the Evangelist Roman Catholic Church and Veterans of Foreign Wars Frederick Post. He was a retired member of the Frederick Cotillion.

His hobbies included listening to music, especially jazz, swing, blues and country. He also devoted his free time to growing roses and playing golf with his good friends including the late Dick  Schindel and the late Wayne Rhoderick both of Frederick.

The family would like to express their deepest gratitude to the nurses, nursing assistants, house keepers and  the rest of the staff at Homewood for their tremendous care and devotion to Mr. Shaughnessy in recent years.

The family will receive guests from 3 to 6pm Sunday at Stauffer Funeral Home at 1621 Opossumtown Pike, Frederick, MD.

Rev. Thomas Shaughnessy will celebrate a Mass of Christian Burial at 11am Monday at St. Joseph-on-Carrollton Manor, 5843 Manor Woods Road, Buckeystown, MD.

The offer of flowers is gratefully declined. The family requests that donations be sent Willows Fund at Homewoood c/o Community Foundation, 312 E. Church St. Frederick, MD 21701 or Daybreak, 7819 Rocky Springs Road, Frederick, MD 21702.