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Former University of Oklahoma President Paul Sharp, a noted historian and leader in the field of higher education who guided the university for most of the turbulent 1970s, died Wednesday in Norman after a lengthy illness. He was 91.

A private family graveside service is scheduled for Saturday. A memorial service will be 4 p.m. Sunday at the First Christian Church, 220 S. Webster Ave., in Norman. Memorial donations may be made to the Reach Out and Read Program through the University of Oklahoma Foundation Inc., 100 Timberdell Road, Norman 73019.

OU President David L. Boren said Dr. Sharp made a lasting impact on OU and higher education across the country.

"He truly invested his life in providing opportunities for future generations. He was not only an outstanding educator, but his kindness and sensitivity to others was a role model for all that knew him," Boren said.

"I really appreciated his wise counsel and advice during my service as governor and especially after I came back to the University of Oklahoma. He will be greatly missed by the entire University of Oklahoma family."

Dr. Sharp, OU's ninth president, came to Norman in 1971 after serving for five years as president of Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa. He was chancellor of the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, from 1964 to 1966 and president of Hiram College, Hiram, Ohio, from 1957 to 1964.

He graduated from Phillips University in Enid. His mother once taught school in Oklahoma Territory at Carrier Academy and Whitehorse School, both near Enid. Dr. Sharp spent many summers working the Oklahoma wheat harvests.

A Missouri native, he completed high school in Crookston, Minn. After his degree from Phillips, he served as a naval officer in the Seventh Fleet Staff and served sea duty in the Southwest Pacific. He received his doctorate from the University of Minnesota in 1947 and taught at Minnesota, Iowa State and Wisconsin before being named president of Hiram College.

Survivors include his wife, Rose, of the home; three children, William Frederick Sharp and his wife, Liz, of Homer, N.Y.; Kathryn Ann Dunlap, of Oklahoma City; and Paul Trevor Sharp and his wife, Jane, of Greensboro, N.C.; seven grandchildren, Michael Sharp, Chris Sharp, Heather Sharp, Brandon Sharp, Graham Sharp, Marny Dunlap and Daniel Dunlap; seven great-grandchildren; and his sister, Thelma Miller, of Colorado Springs.

At OU, Dr. Sharp succeeded Pete Kyle McCarter, who served as interim president, after the resignation in August 1970 of J. Herbert Hollomon. Dr. Sharp served as president from 1971 until 1978 when he suffered a minor stroke, from which he recovered completely.

After designation as president emeritus and a regents-granted semester off, he returned to the classroom as regents professor of history and higher education from 1978 to 1988, when he added the emeritus title to his professorship.

He continued his active association with the university, however, even in retirement, and also served several years as a distinguished professor of history at the University of Science and Arts of Oklahoma in Chickasha.

Dr. Sharp also became a major consultant for higher educational institutions and systems throughout the nation and continued to serve on the boards of countless education-related associations, including Educational Testing Service, which he twice chaired.

He served for many years on the board of the Sarkeys Foundation, the University of Oklahoma Foundation, Full Circle Senior Adult Day Care Center, the Oklahoma Foundation for Excellence, the Associates of the OU Western History Collections, OETA, Oklahoma Symphony Orchestra, Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation, Oklahoma Heritage Foundation, Cleveland County YMCA and the Cleveland County Red Cross, among others. He was the founding chairman of the Norman Community Foundation and LINK Norman.

He received eight honorary doctorates, the distinguished Achievement Award from Phillips University, the Outstanding Achievement Award from the University of Minnesota and the Distinguished Service Citation from the University of Oklahoma, at that time OU's highest honor. His work as a historian, where he specialized in Canadian-American history, was widely respected, his book "Whoop-up Country" earning the Silver Spur Award from the Western Writers of America as 1955's best non-fiction book on the American West.

He was inducted into the Oklahoma Education Hall of Fame and named one of Oklahoma's Living Treasures in 2003 by the Oklahoma Health Center. The Paul F. Sharp Concert Hall in the Catlett Music Center is named in his honor.