You could feel Harry Shaw’s presence on this day when the bright sunshine bathed this long trail with the fragrance of the honeysuckle and mountain laurel along its winding way.
He was the dreamer who believed in what it could become.
He was the vision behind what it is today, and for what it will be for generations to come.
“It may be my project,” Harry Shaw was saying in 2016 as he pensively leaned over the railing of the Crescent Overlook and marveled at the scenic landscape near his boyhood home of Hawley’s Lane in what would become Cross Creek Linear Park. “But it’s not my park.”
This park belongs to all who called Fayetteville home, Harry Shaw wanted us to know, and visitors who pass this city’s way.
“Few people leave such a tangible, lasting impact on their community,” Mayor Mitch Colvin said Monday before the park trail was renamed Harry F. Shaw Linear Trail in honor and memory of the Fayetteville native who died at age 91 on May 19, 2018.
“But Harry Shaw did.
“This naming dedication is a permanent reminder,” the mayor said, “of a man whose vision brought people together, whose leadership turned plans into action and whose legacy will continue to guide and inspire us all.”
Colvin initiated renaming of the park trail for Shaw on May 24, 2018, according to the city. Late City Councilman Bill Crisp called on the council to rename the park trail in honor of Shaw on Jan. 14, 2019, and his motion passed unanimously.
About 75 people attended the ceremony, which also celebrated completion of a connector trail linking the Cape Fear River Trail to the Harry F. Shaw Linear Park Trail.
“A great honor and one that’s well deserved,” said Claire Chesnut Shaw, 91, widow of the Fayetteville businessman and civic leader, who raised more than $3.5 million in donations from 2004-2016 for the 3.9-mile-long trail from Festival Park to Cross Creek Cemetery leading north and east to Riverside Dog Park near U.S Business 301.
The trail is replete with bridges, overlooks and scenic views highlighting the natural beauty of the city’s greenways and waterways.
“He loved Fayetteville and its promise,” said Fayetteville City Councilman Malik Davis, who represents District 2, where the park is located. “Trails like this are transformational. Harry Shaw believed in our future and Harry Shaw believed in Fayetteville.”
‘He would be proud’
Harry Shaw did not live to see the final connector, which links to nearly 11.4 miles from the Cape Fear River Trail winding through city woodlands and wetlands along the Cape Fear River and near the Clark Park Nature Center.
He would task Dr. Wayne Riggins, a Fayetteville ophthalmologist, to bring the final leg of the picturesque trail to fruition.
“He said, ‘I’m dying,’” Riggins told those in attendance. “He said, ‘I want you to take over the project.’ Harry was not inclined to take no for an answer. I said, ‘Of course.’ It seemed to give him peace. I miss Harry. I think he would be proud.”
Anthony Ramsey, 65, is the landscape architect for Fayetteville Cumberland County Parks & Recreation.
He carried out Shaw’s vision for what the trail should be.
Monday was a poignant day for Ramsey as he thought back to the long and hard days of working under Shaw’s guidance.
“I loved him,” Ramsey said before Monday’s dedication.
‘He worked so hard’
Harry Faison Shaw was a man of integrity, whether it was in the financial banking world or serving on the Fayetteville City Council or spending 38 years as a Fayetteville Technical Community College trustee, and 29 of those years as its chairman. You’ll find his fingerprints on everything from the Lafayette Society to the Cape Fear Botanical Garden to First Presbyterian Church to his beloved City of Fayetteville Linear Park Corp.
And the trail, which now carries his name in perpetuity, he said in 2018, is about so much more than trails and tributaries.
“Finishing it proves to us that we can work together,” Shaw said. “It proves to us that we can accomplish good things for our city, even though it might take a while. It proves to us that we can give of ourselves. And it proves to me that we have some of the most unselfish people. This is our town — our town. What it is is what we make it.”
Harry Shaw was a humble man with a gentle gait in his step and a receptive smile for those who encountered him in his long life. He sought no accolades for these trails, just that they would become a reality for all to enjoy.
“He would say, ‘They should not name it for me,’” sister Gillie Revelle, 93, said before Monday’s ribbon cutting. “But I’m so grateful. He worked so hard for it.”
Sally Schmitz said her father would have welcomed this day, and the final connector to the Cape Fear River Trail.
“He’d be thanking everybody,” she said.
Epilogue
I’ve walked the full length of the linear trail with Harry Shaw from the mammoth iron bridge leading to Evans Metropolitan AME Church toward Cross Creek Cemetery to the cascading stairwell and along the paths, where Harry Shaw could tell you a little bit of something about a little bit of everything along the way. And I still see Harry Shaw learning over that Crescent Overlook railing in reflection with the fragrance of the honeysuckle and mountain laurel in the gentle breeze.
You could feel Harry Shaw’s presence Monday.
“I challenge everybody here today,” Mayor Pro Tem Kathy Keefe Jensen reminded all of us on a day of honoring and remembering Harry Faison Shaw, “if we could all be a little piece of him, just imagine what Fayetteville could grow to be.”
Bill Kirby Jr. can be reached at billkirby49@gmail.com or 910-624-1961.
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