Lucinda (Lucy) Shair ’00, mother of two and Founder and Principal of Lucy Shair Financial, passed away January 6, 2021. At Illinois Wesleyan University, Lucy studied French and International Business and lived in the international house on campus, where she met many of her lifelong friends and fostered her love of languages, becoming fluent in French, and cultures. She later earned her Master’s in Accounting from the University of Southern California and achieved her CPA.
Lucy enjoyed music, singing in different choruses throughout her life, and playing the trumpet in orchestras and jazz bands into college. She enjoyed travel, nature, and many hobbies associated with it, including hiking, fly fishing, kayaking, and gardening. She could identify many trees, plants, and birds and loved to purchase and inherit various plants and flowers. She loved reading and spreadsheets, planning and organizing, dancing and singing, most of all with her children and wider family.
She also possessed a profound, lifelong sense of justice. In the pinnacle of her forensic accounting practice, she managed a section of the federal effort to compensate victims of the September 11 attacks, working for over a year on the Victim Compensation Fund under Special Master Kenneth Feinberg. She developing a recycling program at multiple schools and businesses. And through the children’s schooling and community involvement, Lucy nurtured her passion for school policy and political activism.
You can read the full obituary for Lucy here.
