Don Shakow's Moral Beliefs Put To Test In The Workplace

Don Moshe Shakow, who helped halt Seattle City Light's backing of Washington Public Power Supply System's ill-fated nuclear plants 4 and 5, was that rare individual: He fully integrated his moral beliefs into his work life.

As a consultant and expert witness on the economics of rapid-transit or public-energy proposals, he returned a measure of control to the people - an ideal he nurtured while attending the University of California at Berkeley in the 1960s.

As a believer in worker-owned business, he and others ran the Little Bread Co. - Seattle's first employee-run enterprise - on Lake City Way.

And as an advocate of organic farming and home-grown food, he recently operated fruit-tree acreage in Indianola, Kitsap County, and in California's Sonoma Valley.

If Mr. Shakow's projects occasionally failed to bear consistent financial fruit, as in the Sonoma kiwi farm, or in the bakery he sold after it reportedly went $12,000 in debt, he shifted his focus to the next venture, said his son.

"He had boundless energy, running 17 projects at once," said Aaron Shakow of Boston. "That's how he carried on his personal life as well. His mind was always moving."

Mr. Shakow died of cancer Thursday (Feb. 13). He was 56.

Born in Brooklyn, he earned his undergraduate degree in economics at Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1962, and his doctorate in economics at Berkeley in 1969.

As a student, he supported many liberal causes - particularly Vietnam War protests.

He moved to Seattle in 1969 and, with friends, founded the worker-cooperative Ploughshare Corp., which ran Soup and Salad in the Pike Place Market. A year later he co-founded the Little Bread Co., complete with a changing reader board that bore sentiments such as: "We Can't Support One Gov't - Let Alone Thieu," referring to the then-premier of South Vietnam.

Unable to keep the collectives going, in 1975 Mr. Shakow joined Mathematical Sciences Northwest to evaluate power projects for Seattle City Light and other groups. His findings that regional energy needs were greatly exaggerated led to City Light's withdrawing its backing for WPPSS nuclear plants 4 and 5 - "whose eventual construction resulted in the largest utility-bond default in U.S. history," said Mr. Shakow's former colleague Frank Miller.

From 1976 to 1983, Mr. Shakow was a tenured professor in energy economics and natural-resource allocation at Clark University in Worcester, Mass. But he continued as a consultant on energy resources around the world, including work for third-world nations.

He moved back to Indianola in 1983, began his organic orchards and continued in consulting.

Since 1994, funded by a grant from the Institute for Washington's Future, he worked with former state Rep. Dick Nelson to develop a regional transit plan.

"One of his latest projects was working with Ethiopian-immigrant farmers to establish a minifarm to feed themselves in South Park," said Miller, his former partner.

Mr. Shakow also helped set up a translators' cooperative for immigrants and recently served as president of the Bainbridge Island Jewish Community.

Other survivors include his wife of 28 years, Carol Shakow of Indianola; his daughter, Miriam Shakow, Swarthmore, Pa.; and his brother, David Shakow, Philadelphia.

Services have been held. Memorials may go to the Don Shakow Chair for Connected Research at the Institute for Washington's Future, 2111 E. Union St., Seattle, WA, 98122.