Halcyon’s former Temple of the People Guardian-in-Chief Eleanor Shumway died on Aug. 12 at home in Arroyo Grande. She was 92.
The leader of the local Theosophical Society for 32 years, Shumway was the only guardian-in-chief who lived to retire and witness her successor head the century-old Temple of the People.
To her family, Shumway was more than a spiritual guide.
“She had both my kids in class at one time or another, and they would just get her attention by waving their hand because they could not call her Ms. Shumway,” her sister, Barbara Reed, said. “It was Aunt Eleanor.”
The oldest of five children, Shumway moved with her family to Halcyon from Hollywood in 1940 when she was 7 years old. After graduating from Arroyo Grande High School, she taught at the Subic Bay Navy school in the Philippines. Then, after President John F. Kennedy established the Peace Corps, Shumway belonged to the first set of volunteers who served in Ethiopia in the 1960s.
When she returned to the Central Coast, Shumway became an English teacher at Lucia Mar Unified School District.
“She was left-handed and proud of it and wanted everybody else who was left-handed to write correctly and hold the pen in a certain way,” Reed said.
Reed recalled Shumway—who was 11 years older than her—donning a mothering role while they were growing up on account of their mother often falling sick. Over the course of her life, Shumway filled her time by being a seamstress, a gardener, a flower arranger, a resourceful thrift shopper, and a lover of food.
In 1990, she assumed the role of the temple’s fifth guardian-in-chief.
Tucked away in the community of Halcyon, near Oceano, the temple is a source of intrigue and enigma for most SLO County residents. Suspicions of witchcraft and cult worship from people outside Halcyon have even resulted in occasional vandalism of the Blue Star Memorial Temple building.
To Shumway’s niece Lisa Deay, the former temple chief’s greatest contribution was positively engaging with the public.
“There’s a lot of negative stuff that comes to the temple,” she said. “Rumors that it’s something it’s not. I think she was really good at opening up the temple and saying, ‘Come and look and see what we’ve got.’”
A Halcyon native who moved away, Deay remembers Shumway as the “greatest aunt” she and her cousins ever had.
“Because of her we wanted to read, we wanted to travel … see the world, and we wanted to help,” she said.
Shumway voluntarily retired from being temple chief in 2022 to take care of her health. She never married or had children.
Former CEO of United Way of SLO County Rick London—now the sixth guardian-in-chief—remembers Shumway giving him space when he took over.
“Eleanor was very aware there could be only one guardian-in-chief and that she needed to somehow disconnect from the temple,” London said. “She would always tell me that she suspended her curiosity about the temple. Not to, in any way, interfere with my leadership. She went absolutely out of her way not to influence me. But I can’t tell you the peace I got being in her presence.”
Shumway passed away of natural causes two days after the temple held its 126th annual convention. She chose not to go to the temple, instead preferring to stay in her room at an assisted living community in Arroyo Grande.
Her goddaughter and temple treasurer Marti Fast believes it was Shumway’s “perfect time” for departure.
“I feel that we were prepared,” Fast said. “Eleanor’s been prepared for a few years, and she was ready to go when it was her time, but she hoped it was sooner.”
Fast added that Shumway was godmother to at least four other people. She first met Shumway in 1975 as a 23-year-old.
“When she did give a talk in the temple, she had a way of making it understandable to everyone,” Fast said. “She believed it, she spoke it, and most of us resonated with it … I think [they were] some of the clearest writings I’ve read about theosophy in the temple.”
It was Shumway who instilled the power of meditation in Fast, helping her create a welcoming atmosphere for visitors when they dropped by the Halcyon Store that she used to run.
“I taught at Hancock for a long time, and I would often go in a bit early to meditate,” Fast said. “It’s a pattern that now I think we would call mindfulness, but at the time I didn’t have a name for it. It’s just that we would have a silence before we opened the doors.”
Shumway’s funeral service was held Sept. 6 in the Blue Star Memorial Temple in Halcyon. The video recording of the service is available at templeofthepeople.org.
Fast fact
• The Community Foundation SLO County launched a campaign called Together for SLO County to safeguard nonprofits threatened by unexpected funding cuts. The campaign set a goal of raising $1.2 million to provide rapid, flexible support to nonprofits like those that help the homeless, support child care for working parents, and offer mental health resources. Thanks to a $500,000 community match now underway, donor contributions will have double the impact. Grants will roll out in the fall. Learn more at cfsloco.org. ∆
Reach Staff Writer Bulbul Rajagopal at brajagopal@newtimesslo.com.
This article appears in Student Guide 2025.