You might say that Stuart Shaines was “well-suited” for his chosen career. Four years after graduating from UNH with a degree in business administration, he opened a menswear store in Dover that eventually grew into a chain of eight Stuart Shaines Clothiers in New Hampshire and one in Portland, Maine. He remained in business for more than 50 years.
The first store got off to a rocky start: Stuart entered the U.S. Air Force five months after it opened. Fortunately, his father owned the shoe store next door and agreed to run his son’s business while Stuart served as a captain at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio. Stuart earned an MBA from the Air Force Institute of Technology in 1957 and remained active in the Air Force Reserves for the next 10 years. When his active service ended, Stuart turned his energies into expanding his clothing business, which quickly became the “go-to” shops for men of all ages needing anything from a business suit to a tuxedo for a high school prom.
“He always wanted his customers to be happy,” says Marsha Shaines, one of Stuart’s two daughters with his first wife, Honey Anne Shapiro Shaines ’47, who died in 1987. “If someone knocked on the door before the store was open or right after it closed, he would always tell them, ‘Come in, it’s no problem.’” Marsha and her sister, Sarah, remember helping out during the busy weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas, first wrapping gifts with their mother and, when they were older, waiting on customers. “It was a real family event,” says Marsha.
Stuart’s dedication to his stores, his energy and his sense of community service made a lasting impression on his daughters, says Marsha, adding that “he could never sit still and was never happier than when he was busy.” Community service had been important to Stuart beginning in his years as an Eagle Scout — and never more so than in 1944, when he served as a page at the International Monetary Conference in Bretton Woods, New Hampshire. As an adult, while overseeing his burgeoning chain of stores, he also served as a trustee at UNH and then as director of the New Hampshire State Port Authority. He was mayor of Dover from 1961 to 1963, a role that perfectly suited his gregarious personality, served as president of the Dover Chamber of Commerce, held memberships in the Dover Rotary Club and Dover Kiwanis Club and was active in the Jewish community.
Stuart also loved golf, and after he closed his last store in 2008, he and his second wife, Zoe, relocated to St. Augustine, Florida, where he could golf year-round. Even in retirement he kept active with one thing or another, notes Zoe, studying for a certificate that allowed him to become a community association manager, serving as president of the board of their condo association and working on the 2010 U.S. Census.Busy as Stuart was, he always made time for his family. When his daughters were young, he taught them to ski at Gunstock and Waterville Valley and brought them to UNH to ice skate and attend hockey games. He was a loving grandfather to the eight grandchildren and two great-grandchildren he and Zoe shared. Marsha recalls that when her two children were small, her father and Zoe were always on hand at visitors’ day at their summer camps, an event the children looked forward to. As their grandchildren grew older, Stuart and Zoe cheered on their athletic pursuits.
Stuart barely slowed down in his final years, enjoying his family and continuing to work at his volunteer activities until two years before his death at age 90. He passed away on January 9, in St. Augustine.
