John Buckner Sharp

JOHN BUCKNER SHARP, JR., PhD – 96, a resident of Knoxville, TN, passed away Sunday, March 5, 2017, in Knoxville, TN. Dr. Sharp was born in Maynardville, TN, November 5, 1920. He attended public schools in Union County, graduating as Valedictorian of his class at Horace Maynard High School. Based on that achievement, he garnered a $100 Sears scholarship that allowed him to enroll in the University of Tennessee College of Agriculture in 1939. He graduated in 1943 and enlisted in the U.S. Army as an Aviation Cadet to serve in WWII. He was honorably discharged before shipping overseas, due to an injury sustained in training, and he returned to his academic studies in 1944 at UT’s College of Agriculture. He earned a Masters degree in Agronomy at UT in 1945 and began forestry studies at North Carolina State University soon thereafter. In 1946, he transferred to Duke University to complete his Masters degree in Forestry Soils in 1947. He was courted by the UT Extension Service while still a student to accept a job as District Extension Forester in West Tennessee upon graduation from Duke. He reported for extension forestry duty in Jackson, TN, 300 miles and many cultural zones away from rural and Appalachian East Tennessee. His lifelong and passionate involvement with Tennessee’s 4-H Forestry youth began there, where he was lauded for increasing West Tennessee’s 4-H Forestry Club’s enrollment from 170 to 566 projects in his short tenure. Exposure to the Mississippi Delta pre-Civil Rights culture of West Tennessee was an unsettling experience for John, which he documented in a two-part memoir, The Life and Times of John B. Sharp, available in most Knoxville Public Libraries and a variety of archival collections throughout the state. At the close of his reforestation extension work in West Tennessee, John applied for and received a Carnegie Fellowship to the doctoral program in Agricultural Economics and Rural Sociology at Harvard University, in 1950. There, he blended his lifelong interest in forestry with social and cultural studies and was exposed to some of the best minds of the time, including John Kenneth Galbraith, one of his professors at Harvard. Earning his Doctorate at Harvard in Land Economics and Policy in 1952, John was asked to come back to UT’s burgeoning Agricultural Extension Department, where he comprised the entirety of the forestry department in the nascent Forestry, Wildlife & Fisheries Department. Over the decades, John became synonymous with 4-H Forestry in the State of Tennessee, ultimately being recognized by the International Paper Company with a national award in 1981 at the National 4-H Congress for his diligence and his many accomplishments, including a patent. He was honored for growing the number of 4-H Forestry projects from fewer than 300 in 1947 to more than 8000 in 1981 and for initiating 4-H Forestry judging in more than 80 of Tennessee’s 95 counties. He is also remembered in the field for his “Wood Identification: A Manual for the Non-Professionals,” published by UT, which surprised him with its demand by forestry schools and woodworkers. Ultimately, Time-Life Books came calling to include him as an expert in its 1990’s Encyclopedia of Wood series. He was an avid UT Vols fan for years, going to games and then later watching them on TV, when battling the orange crowds became too much. From his early UT college days until the early 2000’s, John and his wife, Helen, were members of Second Presbyterian Church on Kingston Pike in Knoxville. In the last decade, they transferred their church membership closer to home to Central Baptist Church of Fountain City. He was preceded in death by his parents, John B. and Daicy Sharp; two brothers, Rome Sharp and Rush Sharp; and three sisters, Reva Grizzell, Dana Latham and Wanza Sharp. John is survived by his daughter and son-in-law, Nancy Sharp Voith and Kenneth A. Stark, Knoxville; son and daughter-in-law, Paul and Lily Sharp, Burbank, CA; and daughter, Mary Jean Sharp and partner Beth Ann Koelsch, Durham, NC; five grandchildren, Patrick Sharp Voith and wife, Mandy; Austin Ousley Voith and wife, Tiffany; Kelly Fogarty Voith, all of Dallas, TX; and Christine Sharp and Clinton Sharp, both of Burbank, CA; two great-grandchildren, Kennedy Voith and Zachary Voith, both of Dallas, TX; and numerous nieces and nephews. The family will receive friends from 5-7 p.m. Friday, March 8, at Mynatt’s Funeral Home, 2829 Rennoc Road, Knoxville 37918. Funeral services will be held at 7 p.m. Friday at Mynatt’s after the visitation. Burial will follow at 10:45 a.m. Saturday, March 9, at Lynnhurst Cemetary, 2300 West Adair Drive, Knoxville, TN 37918. Flowers are appreciated. In lieu of flowers, the family is very happy to announce an endowed 4H scholarship in honor of Dr. Sharp. Donations can be made via check to “TN 4H Foundation”, with a NOTE: “For John B. Sharp Endowment” and mailed to The TN 4H Foundation, 205 Morgan Hall, 2621 Morgan Circle, Knoxville, TN 37996-4510. You may also go online at https://www.tn4hfoundation.org/forms/donation1.cfm and reference: “In Memoriam for Dr. John B. Sharp, Jr. Acknowledgment to: Helen Sharp