May 7, 2025
Abelina (Abby) Madrid Shaw, a dedicated veterans’ advocate who led community support in Hawaii for the historic role Filipino World War II Veterans served in World War II, passed away on March 25, 2025. She died in a nursing home in Honolulu, with family and friends at her bedside. She was 78.
Abby Shaw served as FilVetREP’s Region 11 Deputy Director in 2015. Abby and Col. Ben Acohido, the region’s first director, along with his wife Anita, were FilVetREP’s original members.
“She’s the towering presence in Hawaii in the 1980s, whose relentless efforts in securing equity for Filipino World War II Veterans significantly raised public awareness about their service and sacrifice,” said FilVetREP Chairman Maj. Gen. Antonio Taguba (Ret). “In her various leadership roles, Abby used her public service stature and legal skills to help lay the groundwork that eventually led to the passage of the Filipino Veterans of World War II Congressional Gold Medal Act of 2015.”
Marie Blanco, FilVetREP Vice Chair, describes Abby Shaw’s valuable role in pioneering FilVetREP’s education program in Hawaii as “a truly remarkable testament to her civic advocacy and indefatigable efforts.”
In her final years, Abby Shaw continued to promote the veterans’ cause by engaging the community in ways to honor and preserve the legacy and proud tradition of WWII Filipino American Veterans and other Filipino American veterans who have served their country with dignity and valor.
“All at FilVetREP will miss Abby,” Taguba said.
OBITUARY
Abelina (Abby) Madrid Shaw
April 13, 1947 — March 25, 2025
Abelina (Abby) Madrid Shaw passed away on March 25, 2025 at Kahala Nui’s Hi’olani Care Center. Abby was born on April 13, 1947 to Venancio and Rosenda Madrid. She was raised with her seven brothers and sisters in the Lihue Sugar Plantation Camp in Hanamaulu, Kauai.
Abby attended Kauai High School and obtained degrees from the University of Hawaii in 1970 (Bachelor of Education) and 1971 (Masters in Communications). Inspired by clerking for the Speaker of the State’s House of Representatives, Abby went on to the William S. Richardson School of Law and graduated in 1976 with the law school’s first graduating class. Abby devoted her 49 year legal career to public service. In her first year out of law school, Abby clerked for Hawaii Supreme Court Justice Benjamin Menor. When her clerkship ended, she spent the next ten years working with the State of Hawaii as Deputy Attorney General, Special Assistant to Governor Ariyoshi and as Director of the State’s Progressive Neighborhood Program. She was appointed by Governor Ariyoshi to serve as Deputy Director of the State’s Department of Health’s with responsibility for the State’s 12 hospitals. This allowed her to achieve greater access to medical and emergency care at those hospitals serving rural and outer-island communities.
In 1994, Abby began a ten-year stint with the City and County of Honolulu. During this time, she served as First Deputy Corporation Counsel, Director of the Department of Community Services, and then Chief of Staff for Mayor Jeremy Harris. In 2004 – representing the City and County – Abby addressed the United Nations General Assembly in New York as part of the General Assembly’s campaign to ban nuclear weapons. Abby retired from public service in 2005 but continued in the solo practice of law for another ten years thereafter from the Law Offices of Abelina Madrid Shaw. The fuel that drove Abby’s successful career was her pride in her Filipino heritage – she wanted to show that Filipinos, especially Filipino women, could excel in whatever professional and other fields they chose to pursue. The same pride was behind her participation in and support of numerous Filipino and other community organizations. She served as Chairman of the Board of the Filipino Community Center, as President of Hawaii Filipino Lawyers Association, as an officer of the Filipino Chamber of Commerce and on numerous other nonprofit boards. Along the way she adopted the Hawaii contingent of some 260,000 Filipino veterans of World War II who elected to reside in the United States post-war. She spent countless years supporting the group’s efforts to get “parity” in federal retirement benefits for her Filipino veterans — to get the same benefits as received by the American soldiers alongside of whom they fought to re-take the Philippines. Although the group was not successful in obtaining the benefits, the group played a key role (together with the support of Hawaii’s Senator Mazie Hirono and other members of Hawaii’s Congressional delegation) in getting Congress to pass the Filipinos Veterans of World War II Congressional Gold Medal Act in 2016.
One of Abby’s proudest moments was sharing credit at the Hawaii banquet “Presentations” in 2017 and 2018 at which more than one hundred of the Hawaii Filipino Veterans of World War II (or their widows) were awarded Congressional Gold Medals of Honor in recognition of their military service on behalf of our nation. Abby received many awards and honors, starting with her recognition as the “most outstanding Filipino graduate” from Kauai High School in 1965. In 2024, she was honored as one of the eight “most outstanding alumni” of the William S. Richardson School of Law at the School’s 50th Anniversary Celebration. Abby was the first Filipino graduate of the Law School; her daughter Renee’s graduation from the same School of Law was Abby’s proudest moment.
Abby is survived by husband Cuyler, her daughter Renee (Thomas Schoen), four grandchildren – Christina, Emily, Caleb and Bethany – and by brothers Angel Madrid (Gloria) and Jose Madrid (Juliet), sisters Petra Barbosa, Bertha Madrid and Juanita Abara, and numerous nieces and nephews. Despite her busy career, Abby’s number one priority was always her family – from her mom and dad (both deceased), her daughter Renee, her grandchildren, brothers and sisters, nephews and nieces – she loved them all. The family and many friends were at Abby’s bedside in her final days. A Celebration of Abby’s Life will be held at the Pacific Club – 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. on Saturday, May 17, 2025. No flowers please. Arrangements Provided By: Nuuanu Memorial Park & Mortuary LLC
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Published by Star-Advertiser on May 4, 2025.
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The Filipino Veterans Recognition and Education Project (FilVetREP), is a nonpartisan, 501(c)(3) tax-exempt, community-based, all-volunteer national initiative whose mission is to obtain national recognition of Filipino and American WW11 soldiers across the United States and the Philippines for their wartime service to the U.S. and the Philippines from July 26, 1941 to December 31, 1946. For more information about Filipino WWII veterans and how to get involved, visit our website at www.filvetrep.org or find us on Facebook or Twitter.