Representative Fern Eugene Sharp View All Years

FERN E. SHARP

MR. PRESIDENT: Your committee, appointed to prepare a suitable resolution commemorating the life, character and public service of the late Honorable Fern E. Sharp, begs leave to submit the following memorial:

Fern E. Sharp was born February 19, 1894, in Clayton County, town of Edgewood, Iowa. He was the son of Joseph and Laura Tear Sharp. He graduated from Edgewood High School in 1912. He attended Iowa State Teachers College, from which he received his B.A. degree in 1916. He then attended law school at the University of Wisconsin in 1922, transferred to the University of Iowa and received his LL.B. degree in 1923.

He was married to Jessie Fritz on August 31, 1920. To this union were born one son and two daughters.

Mr. Sharp was coach and manual training instructor at Livermore, Iowa. He was superintendent of the school at Emerson from 1919 to 1921. In 1924 he began the practice of law at Edgewood. Upon his election as County Attorney in 1927, he moved to Elkader and entered into partnership with Attorney V. T. Price. After Mr. Price’s death in 1931 he took H. K. Roggensack as a partner and continued in the law practice. He was mayor of Edgewood from 1924 until 1927, and also served as mayor of Elkader for a number of years. He served in the army during World War I and later served as commander of the Clayton County American Legion. He was a member of the Iowa State Bar Association, K. P. Lodge, Eastern Star and Elkader Lodge No. 72, A. F. and A. M., Clinton Consistory and El Kahir Shrine. For many years he served as a trustee or moderator of the Congregational Church and as a Sunday School teacher and choir member. He was a member of Rotary and served as President of the School Board.

Mr. Sharp, as a Republican, served in the Iowa Senate in the Fifty-first, Fifty-second, Fifty-second Extra and Fifty-third sessions of the General Assembly, and served in the House of Representatives in the Forty-eighth, Forty-ninth, Fiftieth and Fiftieth Extra sessions of the General Assembly. He passed away October 22, 1967.

Surviving Mr. Sharp are his widow, Jessie; two daughters, Mrs. Laura Roehlk of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and Mrs. Bette Eastham of New Jersey; one son, Fern Eugene Sharp, Jr., of Lake Forest, Illinois. He is also survived by one sister and ten grandchildren.

Therefore, Be It Resolved by the Senate of the Sixty-third General Assembly of Iowa: That in the passing of the Honorable Fern E. Sharp, the state has lost an honored citizen and a faithful and useful public servant, and the Senate by this resolution would express its appreciation of his service, and tender its sympathy to the members of his family.

Be It Further Resolved: That a copy of this resolution be spread upon the Journal of the Senate and that the Secretary of the Senate be directed to forward an enrolled copy to the family of the deceased.

LESLIE C. KLINK, Chairman

FLOYD GILLEY

KENNETH PARKER

Committee

The resolution was unanimously adopted.