The Woodward Alumni Hall of Fame Association
Jay J. Shuer Inducted 1987 - Class of 1925
"For dedication, service, and devotion to his community, state, and nation, Jay has given of himself freely." In this way was Jay Shuer nominated for inclusion in the Woodward High School Hall of Fame.
The nomination continued: "Jay has for many years been a pioneer, a leader, and a promoter for the development of services to retarded children. To parents of retarded children he has given meaning of life, hope to the future, and a firm belief in the goodness of people. His efforts have made mental retardation respectable, and have added quality to the lives of these children."
If any proof of the truth of these statements is needed, it exists in the tributes paid to Mr. Shuer and the awards presented to him on an international scale; in the national, state, and local organizations for which he was the catalyst-founder; and, in concrete form, in the school named for him, the Jay J. Shuer School for retarded children, on Seaman Street in Toledo.
Mr. Shuer is this year's selection to represent students of Woodward’s predecessor schools in the Hall of Fame. A 1925 graduate of Old Woodward, he earned a bachelor of arts degree from the University of Toledo and a master of business administration degree from the Wharton School of Finance of the University of Pennsylvania. He is retired now from the salvage materials firm he operated for many years.
It was the birth of a retarded child, one of the Shuers' three daughters, that motivated Mr. Shuer to devote so much of his time and efforts for the benefit of retarded children everywhere. There is room here for only a partial listing of his accomplishments.
He was a founder, in 1951, of the National Association for Retarded Children and served a number of years on its board of directors. He was founder, in 1952 of the Ohio Association of Mental Retardation, of which he is a past president and on whose board of directors he served for many years. He was a founder, again in 1952, of the Lucas County Association for Retarded Children; with this group, he served several terms as president and is an honorary board member for life.
The list goes on: He is a founder and past board member of the Lott Sheltered Workshop Foundation; a long-time member of the board of advisors of Glengarda, the Ursuline School for Exceptional Children, in Windsor, Ont.; a member of the board of directors of Camp Courageous; a past president of the Ohio Boards of Mental Retardation. He has been chairman of the Northwest Ohio Study on Mental Health, of the advisory council of the Ohio Department of Mental Health and Mental Retardation, of the Lucas County Mental Retardation Board, and of the Ohio Special Olympics Committee. He has served on the Lucas County Children's Services Board and the Lucas County Board of Mental Health.
His interest in education was not confined within the limits of mental health and retardation. He was elected to several terms on the Lucas County Board of Education and served as its president, and was a member of the Penta County Board of Education.
Somehow Mr. Shuer has found the time to serve as a past local president of B'nai B'rith International as chairman of the committee on community welfare for schoolchildren for the Old Newsboys Goodfellow Association, and as president of the Northwest Ohio chapter, University of Pennsylvania Alumni Club. He is a 32nd degree Mason. A retired U.S. Army officer, he is past president of Edward N. Davis Post, American Legion; past commander of Goodman-Goldstein Post, Veterans of Foreign Wars, and past local president of the Retired Officers Association.
Among the honors bestowed on Mr. Shuer have been the award of the Ohio Association for Retarded Children for "determination, devotion, and dedication to giving retarded children the greatest of gifts, the sense of belonging"( 1960); the International St. Ursula Medal for "dedication to social betterment through assistance to the unfortunate" (1965); the University of Toledo Gold "T" Award as outstanding alumnus (1967); the Sertoma Award for Dedication to Community Work (1975), and, of course, the dedication in 1970 of the Jay J. Shuer School for retarded children.
In what must be considered another display of good sense by Mr. Shuer, he picked a Woodward High School graduate, the former Clara Bustow, as his wife.