Jan Register, administrative assistant in the Truitt Center for Religious & Spiritual Life, writes about the legacy of her father, who served as chaplain at Elon for a decade, and the work of Jasper Myers '24 to honor his work.
My Dad, the Rev. Bill Sharpe, was named the first full-time chaplain at what was then Elon College in 1980. When he first arrived at our beautiful college in 1975, he was hired as a part-time director of publications and a part-time counselor. He made up the entire Counseling Services Department.
At that time, Johnny Graves was serving as a part-time campus minister for the school – he was the entire Religious and Spiritual Life Department. Fast forward to November 2011. Through a series of interesting circumstances, I was hired to work at the Elon University Truitt Center for Religious & Spiritual Life. My Dad was so excited that you might be mistaken that the job offer was for him.
Dad was a graduate of Duke University and continued his education at Duke Divinity School. During his time at Duke, he was entrenched in the civil rights movement and was an avid supporter of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. He participated, along with several of his divinity school friends, in a sit-in at a lunch counter in Durham the weekend following the famous 1960 sit-in at Woolworth’s in Greensboro. Upon graduation from Duke, Dad began his pastoral career, but it soon became apparent that he was a bit too forward-thinking for the southern Methodist church. So, he interviewed with Dr. J. Earl Danieley and was hired at Elon.
Dad’s Collection
On a personal note, Dad was a collector — of everything. He collected old newspapers (much to my Mom’s dismay), coins, baseball cards, playbills and memorabilia. When he was diagnosed with prostate cancer in 2018, Dad began to sift through his collections, and he asked me to assist with the delivery of his precious materials, making sure they found a home with the appropriate people and places. Included in his collections were about five folders full of personal letters, pictures, articles and writings from his 10 years at Elon.
I stashed these files in my desk drawer at Elon thinking I would someday figure out who would be interested in them and promptly forgot that I had them. When Dad passed away in January 2020, I had a renewed interest in finding a haven for his beloved Elon materials. I had a few conversations with folks in University Archives and planned to pass the folders to them, but I became overwhelmed with the sheer amount of paper and attempting to discern what might be of enough value to Elon to save. I could not figure it out and the folders remained in my desk for a few more years.
I am the supervisor of the front desk student staff at the Numen Lumen Pavilion, which has always been the part of my role at Elon that I love the most. The relationships that have developed in the lobby of my building are some of the most meaningful in my life and I am grateful for the opportunity to learn and work alongside these folks every day. In the winter of 2022, it seemed that my entire student staff was either going abroad or taking morning classes and I had no one to work the early shift.
That is when one of my students introduced me to Jasper Myers ’24, then a sophomore majoring in classical studies and religious studies who also happened to be a budding archivist with a passion for telling the stories of events and people who have shaped the history of Elon. And, as a bonus, Jasper was also a student worker in University Archives.
Creating a legacy
Jasper and I bonded quickly, and I began telling her stories of my Dad and his time at Elon. Soon I remembered the folders stashed in my desk and I asked Jasper how she would feel about taking on a personal project that was also very integrally related to the history of the religious and spiritual life department. Jasper enthusiastically spoke with Libby Coyner, then her supervisor in University Archives, about creating a collection for Bill Sharpe and Libby agreed that this would be a perfect endeavor for her. University Chaplain and Dean of Multifaith Engagement Kirstin Boswell also thought this was a wonderful idea, and so it was decided.
As Jasper began poring over my Dad’s carefully compiled paperwork, it occurred to me that he would have loved her if he had known her. Jasper was just the type of student that he connected with so passionately and there is no doubt in my mind that they would have been lifelong friends. Fortunately for me, Jasper and I have that same type of relationship.
Jasper spent the better part of a semester creating something that was missing in the historical records of Elon – a biographical collection dedicated to a man who had a burning love for this place and a strong connection with every student who walked into his life between 1975 and 1985. I have fond memories of Dad’s office in the back of Whitley Auditorium. In the warm months he would leave his large screenless window open and all day long students would pop by the window to say hi to “Mr. Bill” on the way to class. I never marveled at the fact that students loved my Dad so completely; I felt the same way about him. He was a master at making connections.
In addition to her work at the Elon University Archives, the Truitt Center for Religious & Spiritual Life, and the Chapel Hill Zen Center, Jasper will also leave quite a legacy at Elon when she graduates on May 24. She was a teaching assistant in Dr. Lynn Huber’s Sex & Gender in the Ancient Mediterranean course and is a member of the Multifaith Scholars Research cohort with Dr. Huber and Dr. Kristina Meinking as her co-mentors. Jasper has presented her research at two conferences and won the Best Undergraduate Paper Award at the American Academy of Religion Southeast in March of this year. In addition, Jasper was the recipient of the Matthew Antonio Bosch Student Community Enrichment Award for outstanding leadership and service to Elon and the greater LGBTQIA communities and she has been a recipient of the Phoenix Group Phillips-Perry Black Excellence Award all four of her years at Elon.
I recently reflected with Jasper about the wonderful gift she gave my family by finding the perfect place for my Dad in Elon’s history. She summed up the experience beautifully with these words:
“You were gracious and kind enough to allow me the opportunity to meet your father,” she said. “And, over time, I came to more deeply understand and appreciate the indelible impact that he had not just on Elon’s campus and religious life, but also – arguably and most importantly – on the lives of students. That I can say I am also a student who has been touched by his kindly, fiercely compassionate spirit, is a great privilege and honor. There have been many hours spent sifting through his personal notes, trying (and sometimes failing) to decipher his scrawling, looping letters. One thing that has remained consistently clear throughout the body of his collected files and materials, is his dedication to loving others, irregardless of circumstance. This is a value that I felt quite strongly as I read over the various news articles mentioning his support of Black students during the University’s turbulent period of integration, and as I archived his extensive collection of written documents and information materials on the philosophy of wellness.”
It is clear that Jasper will leave her own mark at Elon and that she will continue to share her warmth, compassion, and intellect with a world sorely in need of leaders with these qualities. Dad would often say, when discussing tragedies and crisis in the world, “Where are the people who care about the humanity of this situation?” Jasper Myers is one of those rare people.
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Jan Register is administrative assistant in the Truitt Center for Religious and Spiritual Life.