Ned Shank was an American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 essay

Essay

An essay is a piece of writing which is often written from an author's personal point of view. Essays can consist of a number of elements, including: literary criticism, political manifestos, learned arguments, observations of daily life, recollections, and reflections of the author. The definition...

ist, historic preservation

Historic preservation

Historic preservation is an endeavor that seeks to preserve, conserve and protect buildings, objects, landscapes or other artifacts of historical significance...

ist, and the author of one children's book, The Sanyasin's First Day. He was married to the writer Crescent Dragonwagon

Crescent Dragonwagon

Crescent Dragonwagon is an author, writer, teacher, and performer. She has written two novels, several cookbooks, and one book of poetry....

, and with her owned Dairy Hollow House

Dairy Hollow House

Dairy Hollow House was a country inn and restaurant in the Ozark mountain community of Eureka Springs, Arkansas. Once described as "A kind of Algonquin Round Table of the Ozarks" by the Washington Post, it was co-created by the writer Crescent Dragonwagon and her late husband, the historic...

, a country inn and restaurant in Eureka Springs, Arkansas

Eureka Springs, Arkansas

Eureka Springs is a city in Carroll County, Arkansas, United States. Along with Berryville, it is one of the two county seats for the county. It is located in the Ozark Mountains of northwest Arkansas. According to 2006 Census Bureau estimates, the population of the town is 2,350...

. The couple also co-founded the nonprofit Writer's Colony at Dairy Hollow. A sixth-generation Bay Area native, he was born in Oakland, California

Oakland, California

Oakland is a major West Coast port city on San Francisco Bay in the U.S. state of California. It is the eighth-largest city in the state with a 2010 population of 390,724...

, but grew up in Iowa

Iowa

Iowa is a state located in the Midwestern United States, an area often referred to as the "American Heartland". It derives its name from the Ioway people, one of the many American Indian tribes that occupied the state at the time of European exploration. Iowa was a part of the French colony of New...

 and attended Grinnell College

Grinnell College

Grinnell College is a private liberal arts college in Grinnell, Iowa, U.S. known for its strong tradition of social activism. It was founded in 1846, when a group of pioneer New England Congregationalists established the Trustees of Iowa College....

, after which he served as an intern at The National Trust for Historic Preservation. He did historical research which guided the 1970s renovation of the Old State House

Old State House (Little Rock)

The Old State House is a historic building in Little Rock, Arkansas, USA. It is the oldest surviving state capitol building west of the Mississippi River. It is known best as the site of President Bill Clinton's election night celebration in 1992....

 in Little Rock

Little Rock, Arkansas

Little Rock is the capital and the largest city of the U.S. state of Arkansas. The Metropolitan Statistical Area had a population of 699,757 people in the 2010 census...

.

He was posthumously made a Paul P. Harris

Paul P. Harris

Paul Percy Harris was a Chicago, Illinois, attorney best known for founding Rotary International in 1905, a service organization that currently has well over one million members worldwide.-Biography:...

Fellow, and an award was named after him: The Ned Shank Award for Excellence in Publication, given annually by the Historic Preservation Alliance of Arkansas.

The Sanyasin's First Day, a children's book, was published in 1998 (ISBN 0-7614-5055-6).