Harry Shapira
“Bourbon should be an Experience”
Harry J. Shapira was born in Louisville, Kentucky in April 1947. He was the son of David Shapira, one of the five Shapira brothers that founded Heaven Hill Distillery and Heaven Hill Brands. Harry was the Executive Vice President at Heaven Hill and led the company from the top along with his cousin Max Shapira who served as the company’s President. Together, their steady presence represented the second generation of the Shapira family’s leadership at Heaven Hill.
Harry led the creation, design and implementation of the company's two new modern attraction centers: the Bourbon Heritage Center which opened in 2004 in Bardstown and the Evan Williams Bourbon Experience which opened in Louisville in 2013 on the city's historic "Whiskey Row."
Harry attended the University of Louisville and graduated with his bachelor’s degree in business administration. Upon graduating, Shapira served 30 months in the U. S. Army stationed at the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia during the Vietnam War. After serving his country, Harry went to work at the Lazarus Department Store chain in Columbus, Ohio including graduating from their Executive Training Program. After learning the ropes outside of his family business in “the real world of retail,” Shapira moved back to Louisville. He went to work for the family business of the Louisville Store Chain of Junior Department Stores selling clothes and household goods. This was a business that was started around 1900 by his grandfather Max Shapira.
In 1971 Harry married his love of two years, Judy F. Shapira and they had two boys named Adam Shapira and Ian Shapira. Harry moved over to Heaven Hill Brands in 1973 at the age of 26 and over time was promoted to the company’s Executive Vice President. In the mid-1990s, the Shapira’s closed their retail store chain to focus entirely on the bourbon and whiskey business.
Harry was most proud of the Bourbon Heritage Center, where he spent time and could be found autographing bottles of bourbon and whiskey while weaving stories of the distillery's illustrious history. In 1996, George Shapira, the last surviving member of the five founding brothers, passed away leaving the leadership in the caring hands of second-generation owners Max and Harry Shapira. Harry’s project the Heaven Hill Bourbon Heritage Center was dedicated in 2004. In less than four years, that same Heritage Center was awarded the North American and World’s "Visitor's Attraction of the Year" from Whisky Magazine in 2008.
The bourbon industry returned to Louisville’s Historic Whisky Row with the opening of Heaven Hill Distilleries’ Evan Williams Bourbon Experience under the supervision of Harry Shapira.
Harry was a fun and loving man with many joys. He loved traveling, especially on cruise ships, around the world with his wife Judy. He collected small model cars, loved doing crossword puzzles, watching James Bond movies and going to Louisville Cardinals basketball and football games
During Harry's years of leadership, the company expanded its offerings from bourbon and whiskey only, to a large portfolio of distilled spirits brands and products in every segment of the industry. The company is now the country's sixth-largest spirits supplier in the world and second largest distiller and owner of aging bourbon in the world.
Harry Shapira passed away in October 2013 due to complications of cancer. He was inducted posthumously into the Kentucky Bourbon Hall of Fame in 2017. Shapira became only the fourth of five Heaven Hill Distillery members to be inducted into the Bourbon Hall of Fame behind Parker
