Owner of Hotel Mopan dies in Guatemala

One of the pioneers of Belize’s tourism industry died at a hospital in Guatemala this morning. According to the family, Jean Shaw had minor surgery on Friday and died of complications this morning around four a.m. The body will be brought back to Belize on Tuesday for funeral services on Wednesday. Shaw opened the Hotel Mopan, a popular stay for tourists, visiting naturalists and archaeologists on Regent Street twenty-nine years ago. As a veteran of the industry she won the support of her colleagues and became the first president of the Belize Tourism Industry Association and one of the founding members of the Museum Trust, now the House of Culture. She was an active member of the Belize Audubon Society, and a strong supporter of the St. Jude Novena at St. Joseph’s Church. She was also a Justice of the Peace and in 1997 received the Member of the British Empire award. The family says she helped a number of young people to pursue their studies, often hiring them to work in the hotel. Shaw is survived by her daughter Jeannie, son Thomas, father Raymond Weir, sister Victoria Pelayo, brother Edgar Cano and several other brothers and sisters. The funeral will be at St. Joseph’s Church on December eighth at two p.m. The family is asking those attending to wear colorful clothing instead of the traditional black. Jean Ursula Shaw nee Weir was sixty-two.