DAVID JAY SHAPIRO

1939 - 2021

SHAPIRO, David Jay Devoted husband, father and grandfather, David Shapiro died on August 29 in Lincoln, MA, with his wife of 59 years by his side, after a long struggle with Alzheimer's disease. Born in 1939 in Quincy, MA, to Irving and Sarah (Fleischman) Shapiro, he was a lifelong Bay Stater who graduated from Thayer Academy, Harvard College and Boston College Law School. He moved from Cambridge to Newton in 1969 to raise his family. After passing the Mass Bar exam and becoming a real estate lawyer, David spent his entire 30+ year career at Hale & Dorr in Boston. He was also a longtime resident of the South Shore beach community of Hull, MA, where he spent summers as a child and brought his family in the early 1970s to live on K Street. He was a fixture every summer, exploring on his motor scooter, chatting with neighbors and friends on the beach and on the porch, hunched over cards at a poker game oftentimes on the commuter boat back from Boston, and playing tennis at the L Street courts. An avid tennis player, David played nearly daily after his retirement. He also became an actively engaged participant at the Harvard Institute for Learning in Retirement. With a razor-sharp wit, David also greatly enjoyed a good joke (and some bad ones), creating his own unique form of expression, and bestowing quirky nicknames on friends and family. He was constantly entertained and surprised by the absurdities of people and life, never hesitating to share that sense of wonderment to everyone's amusement and occasional bewilderment. An avowed homebody who fundamentally believed that there was never a good reason to leave Massachusetts, he nonetheless went on numerous trips to exotic places to be with his family. He is survived by his wife, Linda; his three children, Ted (Laurence), Jeremy, and Ellen (Todd); his grandchildren, Ben, Daniel, Zoe, and Noa; his brother Kenneth and his wife Ann; many cousins and their families, and Silvia Naluawkago, his devoted caregiver. Donations in his memory may be sent to Care Dimensions Hospice Care at 75 Sylvan St., Suite B102, Danvers, MA 01923, or National Processing Center, Alzheimer's Association, PO. Box 96011, Washington, D.C., 20090-6011. A celebration of his life will be scheduled later in the Fall.