Mary Kimberly Shirk

Shirk moved back to Redlands, California, to live with her parents, after her husband died in 1919.^[5] She was president of the Contemporary Club from 1926 to 1928 and sponsored the Kimberly Juniors, a club for teens that her mother founded. She was a trustee of Scripps College and acting president of the college from 1942 to 1944, during World War II.^[6][7]

Shirk served on the board of directors of the Redlands Community Hospital.^[8] She was active in the YWCA, the American Association of University Women (AAUW), the Assistance League and the Lincoln Shrine Association.^[9] She and her sister were among the founders of the Paine Art Center and Gardens in Wisconsin.^[5][10] She hosted a community tree-lighting event at her Redlands home every December.^[11] She was on the board of the Webb School for Boys and a fellow of the University of Redlands.^[2]

Shirk enjoyed international travel. She made a world tour in 1932, and toured through Europe with Grace Morrison Poole in 1933. She visited Australia and New Zealand in 1936.^[3]

Shirk received several local awards, including the Elks Civic Award in 1959 and the Soroptimist Club's first "Woman of the Year" award.^[9] She received honorary doctorates from Smith College^[12] and the University of Redlands.^[13]

Kimberly married Elbert Walker Shirk in 1905; he was president of a cement company in Indiana. He was a naval aviator in World War I and died in 1919.^[5] Her older sister Jessie Kimberly Paine, with whom she lived in their later years, died in 1973 at age 100.^[14] Mary Kimberly Shirk died in 1979, at the age of 99, in Redlands.^[2] Her home, Kimberly Crest, is a now historic home in Redlands, open for rentals and tours.^[5][15] The household's full-time cook, Anne Canright, lived to be 102 and was one of the first docents at the historic site.^[16][17]