Shawn Ferris Lamb was born in Victoria, BC, in 1938 to Violet and Wilfred Harold. When Shawn was two years old, her father was transferred with Great Northern Railway to Nelson, BC.

Shawn attended first year university at Notre Dame in Nelson, and when her dad was transferred to Vancouver she was able to attend UBC, studying arts and history and earning a bachelor’s degree. While attending UBC, Shawn met Kenneth Lamb, whom she married on July 1, 1959. Shawn was hired to teach in Alert Bay, and then Ken taught in Ocean Falls, followed by Terrace. In 1964 they moved to Nelson.

Shawn’s passion was for the arts and local history. She joined the Nelson and District Arts Council, eventually becoming its president and later the regional representative to the BC Arts

Council. In the 1980s Shawn began working at the Nelson and District Museum. Shawn made many improvements to the museum and began her focused education in archives preservation. Her dream, and the dream of the museum’s board of directors, was to create a new, larger, state of the art museum for Nelson, which enjoyed a rich history. Touchstones Nelson was opened in October 2006 in the original Nelson city hall, with the archives being named in Shawn’s honour. In 1994 Shawn was named Nelson’s Citizen of the Year and in 2009 was presented with the Freedom of the City.

Shawn was predeceased by her husband Ken, her infant son Michael, daughter-in-law Lea, and son-in-law Peter. She leaves behind her six children and their spouses, 23 grandchildren and four great-grandchildren, and her brother Deane and sister Dale. Shawn’s funeral mass was held on Tuesday, October 26, 2021, with numbers limited due to the COVID-19 pandemic. After burial at the Nelson cemetery, an open house was held at Touchstones.