Shawn Kevin Ohl was born on August 21st, 1974 to Michelle and Kevin Ohl, second of the five children they would eventually have. The family briefly lived in Ferndale before moving to Jeddo, Michigan, where Shawn lived until the family moved to the Walled Lake area in the early 1990s.

As a child, Shawn participated in Little League for many years, and even snapped a tendon in his finger as a pitcher. Shawn also was involved in Boy Scouts, and kept his Boy Scout uniform shirt after all of these years. Shawn started school at Cook Elementary, then moved to Croswell-Lexington community schools after the closing of Cook. He attended Cros-Lex through his sophomore year in high school, where he was a good student and an accomplished tenor saxophonist. Shawn spent his junior year of high school at Brother Rice in Bloomfield Hills, and then graduated from Walled Lake Western in 1992.

After high school, Shawn attended classes at Oakland Community College before transferring and graduating with a Bachelor of Arts in English from the University of Michigan. While at U of M, Shawn spent a summer abroad studying at Trinity College in Dublin, Ireland.  Shawn finished out his academic career by receiving his JD from Wayne State’s law school.

Shawn practiced law for over 20 years, working for several different law firms and in several different areas of law before becoming self-employed more recently. One thing that Shawn always felt strongly about was that the law needed to treat everyone fairly, and that not having resources should not prevent someone from attempting to right a wrong. He therefore did pro bono work often, because Shawn’s heart was as big as his sense of justice. He helped so many people during his years practicing law, including friends and family. Shawn was truly someone you could turn to for anything, and if he could help you, he would do everything in his power to do so.

Shawn had many different interests and hobbies that he was passionate about. He loved music, and had both an acoustic and an electric guitar.  Shawn also had an eye for art and photography, and his cloud (nubes!) and fire pictures were shared with many family members and friends. He also, much to his mother’s dismay, enjoyed riding his motorcycle, and took a trip to Tail of the Dragon in 2021. Shawn also was a member of the North Star Sail Club, taking many sailing trips on his boat with friends and family.

Shawn visited Colombia several times, most recently in March of this year. According to his Colombian friends, Shawn’s Spanish was really progressing. During his time in Colombia, Shawn would ride motorcycles all around the countryside with his friend Paul. He also enjoyed eating the delicious Colombian food and just spending time with his friends at the finca. Colombia was Shawn’s happy place.

Shawn died on May 7th, 2024. He is preceded in death by his parents Michelle and Kevin Ohl, his younger brother James Ohl, as well as his grandparents on both sides. He is survived by his sister Nicole Ohl-Shaw, brother Patrick Ohl, and sister Caitlin Johnson (Joseph). Shawn is also survived by his nieces Annalise Shaw, Genevieve Ohl-Badgley, and Arya Johnson, and nephews Gabriel Shaw and Emmett Johnson. He additionally leaves behind countless aunts, uncles, cousins, and many, many friends. Shawn leaves behind so many people who love him and will miss him!

An Irish/Colombian wake/celebration of life will be held on Saturday, June 29th. In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (https://afsp.org/)

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