Bill Shearer was owner of Foxstand Kennels in Boston, Massachusetts, in the 1940s and 1950s. A businessman, president of the Paine Furniture Company, he was an enthusiastic racing competitor who did quite well in the New England circuit in his day. Shearer was notorious for his preference for long-coated Siberians. (He is shown above with his main leader of the 1950s, Foxstand's Shamus.) Although his name is no longer familiar to many, he was enormously influential in the development and preservation of Seppala strain.