Patinkin: Peggy Sharpe could have led a quiet life, instead she left RI a better place
Rhode Island is saying goodbye this week to one of the state's most significant benefactors and citizens – Peggy Sharpe, who died Friday at age 96.
She was married to Henry Sharpe, who left us two years ago at 99 and was the longtime head of Brown & Sharpe, once among the biggest machine tool manufacturers in the world, and a mainstay of the state's economy.
But Peggy left a legacy of her own.
She was known as an engaged force of nature who championed causes dear to her heart – and to Rhode Island’s collective heart as well.
One of the charms of Providence is its tree-shaded streets. Peggy Sharpe is the one to thank for that, having both endowed and embraced a group that so far has planted 14,000 trees in the capital city.
She was also a key force behind the elevation of what is now The Public’s Radio, one of the key threads in the state’s journalistic fabric. The origins of that commitment came from her husband Henry having been a board member of The Providence Journal during its heyday, but she brought that vision forward of seeing news coverage as a Rhode Island public trust.
Yet Peggy’s hand in community improvement was far-ranging.
Upon hearing that she had passed on, I did a search of her name in The Journal’s archives. I came across countless schools that each year offered Henry and Peggy Sharpe academic awards, from the Rocky Hill School, to Moses Brown, to School One and more.
I was also surprised to see she was an early force in pushing the state toward recycling and responsible waste management. But that was Peggy Sharpe – vocal but more focused on the success of good causes than the spotlight for herself.
I spoke on Tuesday with two of her three children – Sarah Sharpe and Douglas Sharpe – and both told me their mom's causes often sprang from her longstanding love of the environment.
It’s what led her to be a founding member of The Nature Conservancy in Rhode Island, yet another legacy of hers.
Peggy Sharpe grew up in Coral Gables, Florida, the daughter of a dad in real estate who passed on his love of the outdoors to her.
She studied set design at New York’s Sarah Lawrence College, then landscape design at RISD, which brought her to Providence. She met Henry Sharpe at a party in the community.
At 27, Henry took over his father’s machine tools company, which eventually included a Providence manufacturing complex employing 12,000 people. Sharpe in time moved it into a more modern structure in North Kingstown, where it focused on precise measuring instruments before being sold to a Swedish company in 2001.
But just as Henry was as much a philanthropist as an industrialist, Peggy also brought vision and commitment to the community.
In the 1980s, Peggy created the “Mary Elizabeth Sharpe Street Tree Endowment” to plant more of them in Providence – it was named after her mother-in-law.
Peggy’s daughter Sarah Sharpe told me Mary Elizabeth originally made a deal with Buddy Cianci to fund a second tree for every one the city planted. But Peggy brought that to a major organizational level with the Providence Neighborhood Planting Program that in 2013 marked the planting of their 10,000th tree, and today the number is over 14,000.
Her children Sarah and Doug told me that trees were long a personal passion of their mom.
As kids growing up in the family home on North Kingstown’s Pojac Point, Henry and Peggy would host an annual Christmas tree event where hundreds headed into the woods led by a Santa Claus to that year’s special tree, which all would then decorate.
Decades later, her passion for trees has changed the city of Providence.
“She regularly thought outside the box,” her daughter said.
Similarly, Peggy and Henry owned land on Stave Island, near Bar Harbor, Maine, and both Doug and Sarah remember carrying wood and other materials to a spot where a family cabin was built – their parents wanted them involved in creating it. Henry and Peggy put a conservation easement on much of the island’s land to keep it forever wild.
As another example of Peggy’s strong will, during her crusade to push recycling by the state she got behind a proposal to put an energy-producing garbage incinerator at Quonset Point. There was huge opposition, and it didn’t go through, but Peggy saw it as a form of renewable energy, and despite being one of the only prominent voices in favor, she braved criticism to argue for it.
“She had a powerful personality. When she wanted something, there was no getting in her way,” said Whitman Littlefield, Peggy’s grandson who is now a managing editor at the Journal.
Littlefield added: “She used that endless drive to cajole, pamper and sometimes bully everyone in her orbit into dozens and dozens of causes, whether it was finishing your plate at Thanksgiving or her incredible work with the Providence Neighborhood Planting Program, preserving the coastal ecosystems and so much more.”
I also asked Doug and Sarah to describe their mom’s personality.
“Relentless,” said Doug.
“Purposeful,” said Sarah.
“Creative,” said Doug.
An extraordinary life: Titan of industry with a poet's heart, Henry Dexter Sharpe Jr.
As the wife of one of the state’s wealthiest men, Peggy could have lived a quiet, prosperous life.
But she cared deeply about nature, and news as a public trust, and community.
Because of Peggy Sharpe’s commitment to such things, she left Rhode Island a better place for us all.
mpatinki@providencejournal.com
This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: Peggy Sharpe remembered for championing causes in RI dear to her heart
