Donald Sharpe (1935-2022)

Biography

In the late 1980s, Sharpe led the effort to create Fordham Law’s first student loan forgiveness program, which has helped hundreds of graduates entering the public sector of the law.

He was also named the chair of the student financial aid committee in 1988 by then Dean John Feerick ’61 and served on Fordham University’s Advisory Committee on Planned Charitable Giving.

He received Fordham University’s Bene Merenti Medal in 1992 and 2012 for his 20 and 40 years of “outstanding service,” respectively, and ultimately served under five Fordham Law deans. 

Sharpe graduated from Oberlin College and earned a masters at Harvard University in the history of science. He attended Boston College Law School in the evenings while teaching at Harvard during the day, and later obtained an LL.M. in taxation from New York University.

After working in private practice and teaching at Albany Law School, New York University Institute on Federal Taxation, and the Practicing Law Institute, Sharpe joined the Fordham Law School faculty in the fall of 1972.

“Students talked about the breadth of his knowledge, the clarity of his exposition, and most of all his laid-back humor.”

-Dean Michael M. Martin

Sharpe is survived by his wife Elaine; son Richard; daughter Alison Avram; son-in-law Mathew Avram; and grandchildren, Rachel Alexandra, Alexander Arthur, and Noah Hudson.

Selected Publications

Unfair Business Competition and the Tax on Income Destined Charity: Forty-Six Years Later, 3 Fla. Tax Rev. 367 (1996)