Walt Shaw - 2013
MHS 1957 Graduate
Walt Shaw, class of 1957, was nominated by Rosemary Lutz Vandegrift. While a student at Minerva High School, he was active in band and dramatics. After graduation attended Asbury College and graduated in 1963 with a bachelor’s of arts degree in chemistry. He received his master’s of science in physiological chemistry from The Ohio State University in 1966. In 1973, he received his Ph.D. in biochemistry from the University of Alabama.
Walt worked as a research associate at the Medical College of Virginia after receiving his master’s degree. He served as president and owner of Avanti Biochemicals, Inc. in Pelham, Alabama. In 1980 his growing company moved to Alabaster, Alabama. As president of Avanti, it became his responsibility to provide suitable equipment and allocate resources to facilitate completion of projects in a timely manner.
From 1992 through 1995, Shaw was chairman of the Alabama Section of the American Chemical Society. He also served as an officer of the International Lecithin Society.
Shaw was a finalist in the Birmingham SBA Person of the Year in 1990. In 2004, he received the Novel Approaches in Oral Drug Delivery Award from CRS-Eurand. He has authored many research publications relating to cancer and cystic fibrosis.
He feels that the best business training he received was from his paper route in Minerva when he was a teenager. “A paper route is a microcosm of a business. You have customers whom you have to satisfy, you have to make a profit, you have to handle finances.”
Walt met his wife, Rowena, at Asbury College. They moved to Ohio when he attended Ohio State. When they moved to Alabama, Rowena took on management of Avanti’s daily operations and is currently the vice president.
Avanti now has 75,000 square feet of manufacturing and office buildings on over 25 acres. The Shaw’s son Trevor has jointed the family business, but daughters Renee and Melinda have chosen other careers.
Because of Avanti’s commitment to quality and willingness to help customers, lipid researchers view the company as “more collaborator than supplier,” says Daniel Raben of Johns Hopkins University, who heads the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Research. In line with its philosophy of always thinking of customers, Avanti is a generous supporter of the ASBMB. Beginning in 2013, the ASBMB’s Lipid Research Division presents an award in Walter Shaw’s name.
Fundraising for Asbury College’s science department, contributing funds to worldwide scientific organizations, and First Nazarene Church of Birmingham are some of Shaw’s community interests.
The Shaws are grandparents of Addison, Savannah, and Preston Underwood; McKenzie and Mason Lowry; and Bennet, Mae, and Caroline Shaw.