Howard Shaff

1929 - 2016

Howard Shaff

October 15, 1929 – November 15, 2016

Howard Shaff, a resident of Marco Island, FL and Rapid City, SD, author of more than a dozen books, Korean War veteran, leading figure in the South Dakota tourism business and one-time New York City cab driver, died peacefully Tuesday at Avow Hospice in Naples, Florida. He was 87.

Born in Brooklyn two weeks before the stock market crash of 1929, Shaff lived a life that transcended cultural, professional and geographical boundaries. As a teenager, Shaff hitchhiked across the United States and then enlisted in the U.S. Air Force, serving as an intelligence analyst during the Korean War.

Shaff would go on to write several novels, biographies and plays. His most well known and influential work was Six Wars at a Time: The Life and Times of Gutzon Borglum, sculptor of Mount Rushmore, a biography published in 1985 that he co-wrote with his wife Audrey Karl Shaff. Most recently, published in 2009, is King Abraham, a work of historical fiction centered on the plot to kill Abraham Lincoln.

Shaff lived in the Black Hills of South Dakota for more than three decades. He did an oral history for the University of South Dakota the workers who helped carve Mount Rushmore. He curated and managed the Rushmore Historical Center in Keystone before, in 1992, founding America Tours West, a leading tour company in the Black Hills.

In 2010, the state of South Dakota honored Shaff with the Ben Black Elk Award which "recognizes an individual who has made tireless and outstanding contributions to our state's visitor industry."

Howard is survived by his wife Audrey; his daughters, Amy, Fran, and Sue; and his stepsons, Jonathan, Allan, James, and Robert Karl, Jr. He has 10 grandchildren and 5 great-grandchildren with two more on the way.

A memorial service for Howard Shaff will be held at 3pm Sunday, November 20th in Marco Island, Florida at the Jewish Congregation of Marco Island.

In lieu of flowers, Mrs. Karl-Shaff suggests a donation to The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research.