Christopher Paul Shaver of Richmond, Virginia passed away May 12, 2023 after a four month battle with throat cancer.

Chris was born May 29, 1966 in Delhi, New York which is located in Delaware County where seven previous generations of Shaver's had lived since the 1780's after relocating from Rhinebeck, New York.  The Schaeffer's settled in Rhinebeck along the Hudson River in 1710 after leaving the Palentine (Rhine River Valley) area of Germany for the British colonies for the promise of land in exchange for harvesting timber.  When the land promise was broken, the Schaeffer's headed to Delaware County where land was available,  opened a sawmill and changed the family name to Shaver.  The area they settled became known as Shavertown.   

Chris's father Allen Jay, mother Eva and brother Allen David were living in Germany but moved back to the Delaware County before Chris was born to be close to his paternal grandparents and to continue the generational birthplace pattern.   Over the next 13 years the family lived up and down the East Coast with a short stint in Phoenix before setting down roots in Vinton, Virginia for seven years where Chris completed middle and high school. His love of cars and ability with all things mechanical emerged during these formative years.

Chris was happiest when walking his dogs around Richmond's Carytown or along the rivers of Richmond, fixing cars,  motorcycles or anything with a motor, cooking great meals, and sitting on the front porch or in his living room talking with friends and neighbors and enjoying a cold beverage or smoke.

A machinist by trade, Chris could fix anything mechanical. He learned the basics in vocational school during high school in Roanoke and honed his craft in machine shops in Los Angeles after high school. After a decade out west, he returned to Virginia where he lived for a while with his Aunt Elaine Shaver Brooks and worked for his uncle Danny Brooks, a home builder based in Charles City, for several years. Chris's love of machine shops was still strong and he returned to that line of work, applying his skills at several specialty industrial equipment machine shops around Richmond. Chris had a knack for finding problems in the engineering specifications he was given and a unique ability to make corrections on the fly which kept projects on track and made him the "go to guy" in the shop,  sharing his knowledge and advice with co-workers.

His career was cut short by an on the job accident that caused terrible damage to his feet and ankles. The road to recovery was long including having to overcome addiction to prescription painkillers. Much to his credit, Chris kicked oxy to the curb and spent his remaining years being a great friend and neighbor in Carytown, as well as being a tremendous help to his aging mother in Durham, NC and relishing the role of Uncle Chris to nephews Andrea (formerly known as Daniel) and Jonathan in Hillsborough, NC. One of Chris's last projects was restoring a 1992 Nissan 240z with Jonathan (see the photos of removing the engine from the 240z).

Chris is survived by his brother Allen David, sister-in-law Kay Albright and two nephews.  He has aunts and cousins up and down the East Coast and Germany, France and Switzerland.   Mother Eva's family came from the East Prussian state of Germany along the Baltic Sea.  Eva's birthplace is now part of Russia and has also been part of Poland and Lithuania. The point of this family origin detour is that both sides of the family tree have deep Germanic roots in which Chris took great pride.

Through brother Allen's marriage to Kay, he has a large family of in-laws across North Carolina and Virginia who enjoyed his company and will miss "Uncle Buck" (watch this movie if you dont understand the reference). Chris also leaves behind several close friends in Richmond.

Chris ashes were interred in October 2023 at the Shavertown  Cemetery in Andes (Delaware County), New York. 

Feel free to celebrate Chris' life in your own way.  If we were to have a celebration of life event, the menu would likely consist of Smithfield BBQ and cold Yuengling and for those with a sweet tooth, apple and coconut cream pies. And despite the surgeon general's warnings and the advice of doctors,  a post meal smoke or two.

Chris - you were a great son, brother, and uncle but above all a true friend for those in your orbit. 

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