England ~ New York ~ Ohio ~ Missouri
Accountant ~ Cities Service Company ~ New York City 1920 to 1944
Vice President ~ Ohio River Power Company ~ 1942 to 1944
Treasurer ~ Empire District Electric Company ~ 1944 to 1954
~ Member of the Board of Directors ~
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1895 - 1955
Charles Maynard Shepherd was born in England May 10, 1895, of Persian-Jewish, Hispanic-Italian and Scots-English heritage. He was the eldest of eight children born to Mary Villar Shepherd and Charles (Separdi) Shepherd. Shepherd is an anglicanized version of Separdi.
When he was 12, the family moved to America, settling in Brooklyn, New York, where he attended local schools.
He majored in business administration at New York University, New York City.
He served as an accountant for Cities Service, Inc. in New York City from 1919 until 1942, when he was appointed vice president of the Ohio River Power Company, a Cities Service subsidiary.
In 1944, he was appointed assistant treasurer of the Empire District Electric Company at Joplin, a Cities Service subsidiary, divested that same year to become an independent company, with its stock listed on the New York Stock Exchange.
Empire District became the dominant provider of electric service for the Four-State region, serving Southwest Missouri, Northwest Arkansas, Southeast Kansas and Northeast Oklahoma.
Shepherd was appointed treasurer and to the board of directors of Empire in 1948. He resigned from Empire in March 1954 under extreme duress.
His resignation followed a series of abductions and assaults on his stepson Tom by jealous punk neighbors, one of whom was the son of a surgeon and a lifelong friend, another the assistant to the president of Empire, who coached his own stepson to hit Tom with a baseball bat merely because Tom fairly won an organized neighborhood wrestling match. read more
Following his resignation, Charles Shepherd was associated with the Paul Jones Agency of Joplin as an insurance and tax consultant.
On May 31, 1955 Charles Shepherd's body was recovered from New York City's East River, following a business trip to Washington, D.C., where he met with Federal government officials, and to New York City, where he met with Con Edison and Cities Service executives.
He was survived by his wife, the former Clara Olive Snyder Blaise, daughter of Missouri bus line founder John Abbott Snyder, whom he married in 1949; and his two stepsons, John Shepherd and Tom Shepherd of the home at 816 Richmond Road, Joplin.
He was also survived by four brothers: Leslie V. Shepherd, St. Albans, N.Y.; Joseph V. Shepherd, Dunellen, N.J.; Roy V. Shepherd and Claude Shepherd of New York City; and two sisters, Sister Marietta at the Convent of St. Anne in Arlington, Mass. and Ruby Bullock of Sag Harbor, N.Y.
Charles. Shepherd was a member of the Kiwanis Club, the Scottish Rite Masonic Lodge and the Elks Lodge. He was also a member of the Joplin Club, St. Philip's Episcopal Church and Twin Hills Golf & Country Club.
He is buried at St. Albans Cemetery on Long Island, New York.
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Charles, John, Clara Olive
at Spring River, Kansas
Tom Shepherd, Photographer
1952 photo album 1946 photo
Shepherd Family Collage
1955 - Joplin Globe ~ New York Times - 1955
Charles Shepherd's Body Recovered From East River
Funeral To Be at St. Albans Church - New York City
read news story
~ ~ The Shepherd-Montessori Institute ~ ~
Founded by Thomas M. Shepherd, Esq.