Virginia “Ginny” Sellers Shaw 1936-2025

Virginia “Ginny” Sellers Shaw 1936-2025

Virginia “Ginny” Sellers Shaw, 89, died on December 18, 2025 in Amherst, Massachusetts. She was born in 1936 to James Townsend and Lyn (Sligh) Sellers in Gladwyne, Pennsylvania, followed by her younger sister, Lyn Carol, in 1939. After graduating Vassar College, Ginny received a Master of Education from Radcliffe College and moved to Greenwich Village in New York City where she began her life as an educator.  

At twenty-six, she met and soon married Harold Dale Shaw and became a step-parent to his three daughters. They settled in Wilton, Connecticut where she gave birth to her daughter Phoebe. Ginny delighted in taking on a busy family life. Focusing on the wisdom and spirit of young children, she began teaching at a nursery school. Later, she moved to Westport, Connecticut where she developed the nutrition program for Saugatuck Day Care and worked to bring nutrition, training and education into family daycare homes in Southern Connecticut.

Her first marriage ended in divorce in 1975. Later, Ginny met her life partner, David Green, whom she married on a day tour boat around the Thimble Islands off Branford, Connecticut. Ginny had become an award-winning realtor but eventually left real estate to train as a mediator and advocate of Deliberative Democracy. 

Ginny and David made music and treasured family, friends and pet dogs for nearly four decades.  Their home, a destination for folk music gatherings which they called House Hoots, was full of laughter and appreciation for simple riches like health and friendship.  When they left home, which was rare, the couple would travel north to visit daughters in Montreal or Toronto, or simply head up to “The Barn,” their place nestled into an orchard in Western Massachusetts.

Ginny’s version of luxury was a day outside gardening, followed by a steaming bath with a book. She read widely, kept an open but critical mind and was a fierce defender of any argument in favor of human rights, especially children’s. Never pleased with winter, Ginny cheered spring’s first crocus in her backyard. 

Ginny’s last chapter was lived under the shadow of dementia, throughout which she retained her grace and kind nature, trusting the care of devoted caregivers along the way. 

Predeceased in 2019 by her beloved husband David S. Green, Ginny leaves behind her daughters Susan Shaw (John Buscaglia, d.2020) of Wyoming, RI and Phoebe Shaw (David Chase) of Haydenville, MA, her sister Lyn Davies of Scarborough, ME, nieces Gillian Davies and Anne Singh, and step-daughters Daina (Barry Lipton), Susan and Rachel Green, grandchildren Solly, Ruby, David and Charles and beloved childhood friend Trina Greene of New Paltz, NY. 

Donations in Ginny’s memory can be made to Square One, a program for children.