Robert Poindexter Sharkey ’48

Bob Sharkey, retired George Washington U. economic history professor and history department chairman, died of cardiac arrest Sept. 19, 1998, at his home in Washington, D.C. He was 72.

A native of Atlanta, Bob was a graduate of Boys' H.S. At Princeton he was in Terrace and was chairman of the Daily Princetonian and a member of the Undergraduate Council. He graduated with honors in SPIA and was in the Navy from 194546. "Because of lack of money, frequent states of mental depression, and general laziness, it took precisely 10 years for me to finish the PhD," he said. His PhD was from Johns Hopkins, with distinction. For a year he served as assistant to Johns Hopkins's president, Milton Eisenhower.

Following a year on a Fulbright grant at the U. of Cologne, Germany, and another year as assistant professor at Princeton, Bob accepted an appointment at George Washington U. in 1963. He became full professor in 1965 and retired in 1985. His major publication was Money, Class, and Party: An Economic Study of Civil War and Reconstruction.

Bob is survived by his daughter, Rebecca, and his sister. To them, the class extends its deepest sympathy.

The Class of 1948