George Howard Shotwell, 86, local business and civic leader, died on the morning of June 6 at his home.
The longtime Hurst resident served his community for 26 years, with 10 years on the city’s Parks and Recreation Board and 15 years on the Planning and Zoning Commission.
But Shotwell was also active in Fort Worth, spending 12 years as chief financial officer at Coors Distributing Co. of Fort Worth, following a career in the airport concessions industry.
In 2024, he created The Shotwell Foundation, a nonprofit providing skills and trades scholarships to high school graduates or GED recipients from the Hurst-Euless-Bedford, Birdville and Grapevine-Colleyville school districts. The foundation awarded seven scholarships in the last two years.
Shotwell was ahead of his time focusing on vocational education, said Larry Anfin, who was CEO at Coors Distributing when Shotwell was CFO.
“Howard had been talking about that for years,” he said. “Now, it’s a regular topic, but Howard was one of the first to recognize that need.”
Anfin said his regular coffee meetings with Shotwell will be sorely missed. The two began meeting on Saturday mornings more than 20 years ago, initially to work on issues related to Coors.
“Saturday was a quiet time, so Howard would bring a checklist of 15 or 20 things he wanted to talk about, and we’d go over them on Saturday,” Anfin said. “Amazing what we could get done in two hours on a Saturday morning.”
After Coors Distributing was sold in 2014, the two continued to meet, oftentimes working to solve other problems.
“He’d talk about what was going on in Hurst, and I’d talk about what was going on in Fort Worth,” Anfin said. “It’ll be different without Howard.”
When his friend’s health took a downturn six years ago, Anfin began driving to Shotwell’s home to continue their weekly visits.
Shotwell’s problem-solving abilities led Coors Distributing to become a non-subscriber to the worker’s compensation system, which created other benefits for the company and its more than 200 employees.
“Howard helped us implement a non-subscriber program because at the time worker’s compensation costs were out of control,” he said. “It was a lot of work; it takes a lot of commitment for an organization to do that, and Howard led us through that.”
Along with saving the company millions of dollars, the changes Shotwell implemented led to an impressive, nearly 10-year-long run without a work-related lost-time injury.
“If we hadn’t been sold when we did, it would have been a decade without a work-loss injury, and that’s almost unheard of,” Anfin said.
Prior to working at Coors Distributing, Shotwell spent 34 years managing airport concessions — first with Dobbs Houses, then with Delaware North — where he managed airport concessions at over 50 airports, including DFW International Airport. For 42 years, he and his wife Sandy also led R&D Associates, a real estate development and property management company.
Shotwell served on the board of nonprofits such as the Bobby Bragan Youth Foundation, Casa Mañana, the Birdville Education Foundation, and Saving Our Seniors.
He chaired the Northeast Tarrant Chamber of Commerce in 2016 and led the HEB Chamber of Commerce’s business advisory council for three years.
Shotwell was chairman in 2021 of the Northeast Leadership Forum, an organization promoting collaboration among 16 cities in Northeast Tarrant County. He received the Distinguished Leadership Award from the organization in 2023.
He raised $25,000 to build a fire safety trailer used to teach children fire safety. He also led the bond campaign in 2012 to fund the city of Hurst Justice Center.
Shotwell is survived by his wife, Sandy; his sons Rodney; and David; and grandchildren Karver, Dalton, Evan, Holden, and Josh Shotwell, and Hunter Brown.
Following cremation, the family will host a public celebration of life at 2 p.m. July 25 at the Hurst Conference Center.
Bob Francis is business editor for the Fort Worth Report. Contact him at bob.francis@fortworthreport.org.
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