GLEN SHARP
Robert Glenmore Sharp, 91, husband of May Clarke Bynum Sharp, died Saturday, Jan. 26, 2013, at Covenant Place.
He was born Sept. 18, 1921, in Grovania, Ga., the eldest son of Elise Brown and Charles Grover Sharp. Before he started school, his entire family moved to Edinburgh, Texas, to try their hand at citrus farming. After the move, his father, grandfather, grandmother and aunt died within a 10-year period. The farm failed to adequately support the family, and his experiences in Texas during the Great Depression strongly influenced his outlook on life and determination to be successful.
Mr. Sharp graduated from high school and attended junior college in the Rio Grande Valley before entering the University of Texas at Austin on the eve of World War II. As a teenage Boy Scout, he lost an eye in a camping accident. This prevented him from serving his country in the armed forces during the war, as did his two younger brothers, Walter and Dabney, a 21-year-old navigator who died when his plane was shot down.
Hired from college by Pan American Airlines, Mr. Sharp nonetheless found a way to serve by becoming a management trainee soon placed in charge of building and running new airports in Latin America secretly subsidized by the U.S. government as part of the war effort. During that period he worked in Puerto Rico, Costa Rica, El Salvador and Nicaragua and became conversant in Spanish.
After the war, he returned to the University of Texas and graduated in 1945 with a degree in business management. Observing from his experience at Pan American Airlines that primarily Ivy League graduates were chosen for upper level management positions in large corporations, he decided to start his own business immediately upon graduating. After a brief stint in a family friend's propane gas business in Georgia, he borrowed startup funds from his mother to launch his own company in South Carolina, choosing Sumter as the headquarters of Suburban Propane Gas Inc. in 1947.
There he met and married his wife, May Clarke Bynum, in 1949, and they began their family. A few years later his brother Walter joined him in the business, which grew to become the largest propane gas business in S.C. with over 100 employees and with nine offices statewide. The Sharp brothers prided themselves on always maintaining adequate reserves to service all their customers even in the face of the energy shortages of the 1970s. In 1991, at age 70, he merged the company with South Carolina Electric and Gas (SCANA Corporation) and retired to pursue philanthropic and community interests.
He served as chair or co-chair in capital campaigns benefiting his church Trinity United Methodist, Tuomey Hospital, the Boys & Girls Club, Covenant Place and the Sumter YMCA.
He was a former board member of Tuomey Hospital, a board member of the Tuomey Foundation where he served as a life member, and a board member of the National Bank of South Carolina. Morris College and the Medical University of South Carolina were also favorite charities of his.
A fitness enthusiast, he was usually the earliest member to arrive at the Y and worked out there each morning often beginning as early as 5 a.m. He liked playing golf with his close friends.
During and after his career he served on the boards of Sumter Coatings, Williams Furniture and Vaughn Basset Furniture companies. He was past president of the South Carolina Liquified Petroleum Gas Association and the National Liquified Petroleum Gas Association. Among the local clubs to which he belonged, the Knock Rummy and the Fortnightly were his favorites. He enjoyed vacationing at Pawley's Island and hosted a Sharp family gathering there each year the week of July 4.
When presented with the Chamber of Commerce Sumter Business Person of the Year award in 1989, Mr. Sharp said, "I feel Sumter has done so much for me, I don't really know what to say. I'm speechless."
Surviving are his wife of 63 years, May Clarke Bynum Sharp; two daughters, Esther Bynum Sharp and Elise Sharp Moore (Wayne); four grandsons, Galen Michael Haggerty, Thomas Sharp Hearn, Chad Moore and Ford Moore.
Funeral services will be at 11 a.m. Tuesday, Jan. 29, at Trinity United Methodist Church with the Rev. Kevin Gorry officiating.
A reception will follow at his home, 211 Wactor St., where the family will also receive visitors from 4 to 6 p.m. Monday, Jan. 28.
In lieu of flowers, he would have appreciated your contribution to any of the above-mentioned charities.
Private burial will be held at Sumter Cemetery.
The family would like to express appreciation to Mr. Sharp's caregivers, Denice Clemmons, Elaine Mack, Gorman Wicker, Leithia Greene, Lou Dixon, Marie Singleton, Minnie Thomas, Jenny James and the caring staff at Covenant Place.
Elmore Hill McCreight Funeral Home and Crematory is in charge of the arrangements. (803) 775-9386.
