December 30, 2023

Hello folks

It is with a heavy heart that I write to inform you of the passing of Charles Drury Shaw, the only son of Captain C.K. Shepherd. His widow, Carolyn, informed me that he passed away at St Wilfrid’s Hospice in Chichester, West Sussex, England, on December 12, 2023, about a week after being bedridden.

I first met Charles and Carolyn at their home in Hougton, West Sussex, in October 2017. He opened his father’s “archives” to me as I endeavored to discover key details of C.K. Shepherd’s life including the1919 journey depicted in his book, Across America by Motor-Cycle. Charles could not have been a more gracious host. Knowing I planned a tribute ride on my 1919 Henderson, Charles loaned me his father’s compass (above). We planned to meet at the El Tovar Hotel at the Grand Canyon in 2019 as I would be well underway on my ride.

Over the next couple years, Charles and I remained in frequent contact. I often wondered if I had “overstayed my welcome” with Charles, asking him so many questions about his father that, at one point, Charles asked if I had considered seeking answers from C.K. himself during a séance. Both of us knew that C.K. had long been invested in “spiritualism.” I reasoned that if anyone was likely to leave an “open line” back to the living world, it would be C.K. Shepherd, so I could not dismiss this idea.

A month before I was to depart on my trip, I published my own Fully Annotated Centennial Edition of Across America by Motor-Cycle. Charles was gracious enough to write a foreword to the book for me. I will forever remember his opening line: “My father had been dead for 46 years when Mark Hunnibell brought him back to me.”

As you all know, while on the ride in 2019, the Red One broke hard in Kansas. But I knew Charles and Carolyn would be waiting for me at the Grand Canyon, so we hauled my bike to the Grand Canyon for that auspicious meeting.