| Grant
W. Sharpe
(Originally published in the spring 2006 issue of InterpNews,
by Sam Ham)
 It
is important that all of us in the interpretation field—particularly
our younger colleagues who were unable to know Grant
W. Sharpe personally—recognize the immense contribution
this amazing man has had on us, on what we do, and
on the things we care about most in professional life.
Few others in the history of parks, protected areas,
and interpretation will ever equal his impact. The
careers of nearly two generations of interpretation
professionals have taken place on Grant’s “watch,” and
there is little doubt that each of us has walked a
smoother road laden with more opportunity because of
his advocacy and the strong credible voice he brought
to interpretation.
Grant died peacefully on the morning of January 17, 2006, in Bremerton, Washington.
He had just turned 80. His entire family was present at the time of his death.
He did not suffer. The official cause of death was liver failure.
Grant Sharpe accomplished more in life than a lot of contemporary interpreters
may realize. There will be official obituaries, and many lists of richly deserved
accolades will no doubt be published about him. But if I could summarize the
significance of this professor’s life in a single thought, it would be
that he was almost singularly responsible for legitimizing interpretation as
a profession as well as a field of study in higher education. He fought battles
that none of us who followed would ever have to fight, and he published Interpreting
the Environment, the first-ever text attempting a scholarly analysis of interpretation,
among many other scholarly works. These unparalleled efforts over a 40-year period
helped to set the table for interpretation’s credibility both in universities
around the world and within organizations and institutions that today develop
and present interpretive programs. During his life, Grant W. Sharpe nurtured,
cultivated, and shaped an entire profession, and virtually anyone who wears the
label “interpreter” is indebted in some way to this unusual man.
I, like many of his colleagues, feel fortunate simply to have lived when he did.
Things would have been so much more difficult had he not blazed the trail in
front of us.
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