Warren Shearer Obituary

Shearer
Warren Richard "Dick"
Shearer
February 19, 1940
September 23, 2023

Warren Richard "Dick" Shearer, 83, of Creve Coeur, Mo., died of pneumonia/COVID-19 in St. Louis, on September 23, 2023. He will be fondly remembered as a social studies teacher at the prestigious Kirkwood, Mo., High School from 1975-79, where he was "adored by his students." Dick offered guidance, mentoring and respect, ennobling his profession.
Dick was born to Russell W. Shearer and Pearl (Kennett) Shearer in Bucklin, Ford County, Kan., in 1940. When Dick was in grade school, his family moved to Manitou Springs, Colo., where he graduated from Manitou Springs High School in 1958. He received a BS, Education, major history, minor economics, from Missouri State University, Springfield, in 1964, and an MA, Teaching, from Webster College in Webster Groves, Mo., in 1971.
He and Merrily Kaye Hofmeister were wed on November 22, 1962, and had two sons, Todd and Perry. After he retired from teaching, Dick opened the Kraut Haus, a pub in South St. Louis. In the late 1980s, he sold the bar and started Shearer Pool Service, a business he operated successfully until 2007.
Dick's parents and his six siblings all previously passed. Surviving him are his former wife, Merrily Madden of St. Louis; their two sons, Todd of St. Louis, and Perry of Grand Junction, Colo.; nephews and nieces, Marty (Goff) Hahn of Blue Eye, Mo., Michael Shearer of Salida, Colo., Sherry (Goff) McKee of Colorado Springs, Sheila (Goff) Ritchie of Woodland Park, Colo., and Greg Goff of Dodge City, Kans.
While Dick was best known for his shaggy dog stories, limericks and side-splitting jokes, he had a sensitive, caring, humane center inside the often-acerbic outer crust. Deep down he cared for people and for the natural world, and was saddened at environmental degradation, habitat loss and species depletion. Dick's ashes will return to Colorado. Anyone wishing to honor his memory is encouraged to donate in his name to the Nature Conservancy or other Nature-focused nonprofit.