John Alexander Malcolm Shaw was born on 12 June 1885 in Woodburn, Ontario. He graduated from the Ontario Agricultural College in 1910 and served as an agricultural agent for the Great Northern Railways prior to accepting an appointment at the University of Saskatchewan as assistant professor of Animal Husbandry. In 1929 he was named Dean of Agriculture, a position he held until his resignation from the University in 1937. From 1935 to 1937, Shaw was a Commissioner of the Canadian Wheat Board; in 1937, he was appointed Director of the newly formed marketing service in the federal Department of Agriculture. In 1950 he became Chair of the Agricultural Prices Support Board; and from 1953 to 1955 he chaired the Royal Commission on Agriculture in Newfoundland. He retired in 1958. AM Shaw was one of the outstanding pioneers in Saskatchewan agriculture and played a leading role in the development of livestock breeding and of agricultural marketing in Canada. He died on 16 August 1974 in Ottawa, Ontario.