{"id":3400,"date":"2023-10-23T13:11:51","date_gmt":"2023-10-23T13:11:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.siuf.org\/?p=3400"},"modified":"2023-10-31T16:27:13","modified_gmt":"2023-10-31T16:27:13","slug":"sharp-museum-dedicated-in-honor-of-1m-donation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.siuf.org\/?p=3400","title":{"rendered":"Sharp Museum dedicated in honor of $1M donation"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Professor James Franklin Sharp attended SIU from 1954 to 1956<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/jh4tIVSKexs?si=fwFXVbM_QTo1Mwow\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><strong>By Jeff Wilson<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>With a $1 million gift, Professor James Franklin Sharp has chiseled his name into SIU\u2019s legacy. Now, the university has honored his generosity by renaming the University Museum as Sharp Museum.<\/p>\n<p>On Friday, Oct. 20, the university unveiled the Sharp Museum naming and renamed the Southern Illinois Gallery as the Mrs. Rosanna Sharp Myers Southern Illinois Gallery, after Sharp\u2019s sister.<\/p>\n<p>\u201c(Professor Sharp) is forever tied to the history of this institution,\u201d Chancellor Austin Lane said. \u201cHow fitting to have something like this during Homecoming week.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Professor Sharp attended SIU from 1954 to 1956, but the university didn\u2019t offer a four-year degree in engineering at that time. Still, he said he always felt a strong connection to the university.<\/p>\n<p>While an SIU student, he played seven intramural sports, including football, corkball, basketball, volleyball, softball, badminton, and horseshoes. He was a member of the Theta Xi fraternity.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cProfessor Sharp was all in during his time at SIU,\u201d said SIU System President Dan Mahony. \u201cHe took advantage of that experience, and when you do that, it becomes a life habit.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He transferred to the University of Illinois from SIU and completed his undergraduate degree in industrial engineering. He later earned a master\u2019s and Ph.D. from Purdue University.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI guess I would say I enjoyed my time at SIU more than the other colleges I attended,\u201d Professor Sharp said.<\/p>\n<p>Professor Sharp taught at three universities: Rutgers University, New York University Stern Graduate School of Business, and Pace University Lubin Graduate School of Business. He also held management positions at AT&amp;T and founded Sharp Seminars in New York, which became a leading provider of training for Wall Street investment analysts and investment portfolio managers.<\/p>\n<p>He has also written 36 books and had many articles published. He has achieved the following professional designations: CFA, CIPM, CMA, CFM, and Mensa.<\/p>\n<p>A Chester High School graduate, Professor Sharp has made supporting education a lifelong endeavor. He has made multiple donations to Chester schools, totaling more than $600,000.<\/p>\n<p>Sharp Museum first opened as a natural history museum in 1874, and it has evolved into a teaching museum that represents the humanities, the sciences, and the arts. With roughly 70,000 objects in its care, the Sharp Museum captures and illuminates the human story, opening a window to who we are and where we came from.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis museum is deep in my heart,\u201d said Dean of Library Affairs John Pollitz. \u201cIt\u2019s such an incredible resource for this whole area.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Professor James Franklin Sharp attended SIU from 1954 to 1956 By Jeff Wilson With a $1 million gift, Professor James Franklin Sharp has chiseled his name into SIU\u2019s legacy. Now, the university has honored his generosity by renaming the University Museum as Sharp Museum. On Friday, Oct. 20, the university unveiled the Sharp Museum naming &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/blog.siuf.org\/?p=3400\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Sharp Museum dedicated in honor of $1M donation<\/span> <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,3,4,2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3400","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-donor-stories","category-higher-education","category-illinois-higher-education","category-siu"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.siuf.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3400","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.siuf.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.siuf.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.siuf.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.siuf.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3400"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/blog.siuf.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3400\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3410,"href":"https:\/\/blog.siuf.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3400\/revisions\/3410"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.siuf.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3400"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.siuf.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3400"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.siuf.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3400"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}