Renowned scholar blazed paths as professor, arbitrator, and nonpareil friend

Calvin W. Sharpe was recruited to teach at Case Western Reserve Law School in 1984. Settling in Cleveland Heights with his family, Calvin soon began to make his indelible marks in both academia and community.

Among his numerous accomplishments, Calvin was named to two chaired professorships at CWRU: the John Deaver Drinko Baker Hostetler chair in 1999 and to the Galen J Roush chaired professorship in 2009, becoming emeritus when he retired in 2013.

During his tenure at the school, Calvin established the law school’s Center for the Interdisciplinary Study of Conflict and Dispute Resolution as well as an annual lecture series that continues today at the law school, the Dr. Maya Angelou and Professor Calvin Sharpe Distinguished Lecture on Peaceful Conflict, held every year on or around Maya Angelou's birthday, April 4th.

The CWRU Law School community will pause to celebrate Professor Sharpe’s life and legacy on Friday, April 4, 2025, at 5p in the CWRU Law Moot Court Room. The event will be webcast. Registration and webcast links may be found here.

  

Calvin William Sharpe, 79

February 22, 1945-May 9, 2024

 
Calvin William Sharpe was born February 22, 1945, in Hickory, North Carolina, the third child of Mildred and Reverend Ralph Sharpe.

Calvin’s father was a United Methodist minister, pastor of Hartzell Memorial United Methodist Church in Hickory. After losing his mother, Mildred, a homemaker, in 1960, Calvin became the devoted son of his second mother, Cleo Augusta Hill Sharpe, an elementary school teacher.

Initially a quiet kid, Calvin developed into a confident youth with a vibrant personality, a sophisticated sense of humor, and a charisma that made peers gravitate toward him. From his early days he forged lifelong bonds with both childhood pals and subsequent friends. His friend Doris Forney Frazier said Calvin was, "always a gentleman, easy to talk to, very fun-loving, and had quite a few friends. All the girls loved him because he was so personable and had a smooth, captivating personality."

An active and well-rounded young man, Calvin was a member of the Cub Scouts and Boy Scouts, played the piano and sang in the choir at Hartzell Memorial UMC. His friend James Kimball remembers Calvin as captain of the basketball team. After graduating as valedictorian in 1963 from Hickory’s Ridgeview HS, Calvin enrolled at Clark Atlanta University, graduating in 1967 with a B.A. in Philosophy and Religion.

Calvin claimed that "he didn't grow up" until he moved to New York City after college and lived in a one-room basement apartment in the same building where his big brother, Ralph, a New York stockbroker, resided. In NYC, Calvin got a chance to experience the hustle and bustle of the big city and engage in the real world, which was ablaze in the civil rights and labor movements of the time.

Initially intent on following his father’s footsteps, Calvin moved to Chicago and enrolled at Chicago Theological Seminary. But perhaps moved by his desire to make an impact on the social, political and economic status quo, Calvin left seminary and entered law school at Northwestern School of Law, where he was a member of the Law Review.

After graduating from law school, Calvin clerked for U.S. District Judge Hubert L. Will (Northern District, Illinois). After the clerkship, Calvin went on to work for four years as a trial attorney with the National Labor Relations Board, work that prepared him for his later work as a teaching and scholar in the fields of evidence, labor law, employment law, and dispute resolution.

Calvin began his law teaching career at the University of Virginia, where he so impressed his UVA colleague Professor Ernest Gellhorn, who was soon named Dean at Case Western Reserve Law School, that Gellhorn recruited Calvin to join the CWRU faculty.

Calvin began at CWRU Law in 1984 and taught there until his retirement in 2013. At CWRU, Calvin taught Evidence, Trial Tactics, Alternative Dispute Resolution, and courses in labor and employment law and published in all four areas.

At Case, Calvin was a respected and sought-after instructor; his students appreciated his enthusiasm, encouraging and precise teaching style, and support. He was a mentor and cheerleader to colleagues and encouraged the hiring of diverse faculty. Calvin's service to the law school included founding the law school’s Center for the Interdisciplinary Study of Conflict and Dispute Resolution (CISCDR, pronounced "sister"), and serving as Associate Dean for Academic Affairs. Calvin also established an annual lecture series that continues today at the law school, the Dr. Maya Angelou and Professor Calvin Sharpe Distinguished Lecture on Peaceful Conflict, held every year on or around Maya Angelou's birthday, April 4th.

Calvin was sought out by other law schools during his tenure at CWRU, serving as visiting law professor at the University of Minnesota, George Washington University, Arizona State, Seton Hall, DePaul, Chicago-Kent, and Rutgers-Newark, where he served as the Justice William J. Brannan Distinguished Visiting Professor. He taught and spoke internationally. In 1998, Calvin was part of a select delegation from the National Academy of Arbitrators invited to South Africa to help that country develop its labor law system.

Calvin was well published, his more than 40 publications establishing him as a leading authority in evidence, employment law, labor arbitration, dispute resolution, and labor law. Among his publications are a leading book on labor law, Understanding Labor Law, and a pioneering casebook on international labor law, International Labor Law: Cases and Materials on Workers' Rights in The Global Economy (2008). Professor Dennis Nolan, former President of the National Academy of Arbitrators, described Calvin's article on court review of statutory arbitration to be "the most thorough and insightful in the field."

Throughout his career, Calvin served in leadership roles in relevant subject matter organizations related to his fields. He chaired the Evidence Section of the Association of American Law Schools. He was a member of the Board of Governors of the National Academy of Arbitrators and served for a time as the organization's Vice President. He was selected to write a chapter in the revised guidebook for labor management dispute resolution, The Common Law of the Workplace. Calvin also served on the United States Executive Board of the International Society of Labor and Social Security Law as well as on the Board of Directors, JUSTPEACE Center for Mediation and Conflict Transformation.

Having established himself as a law professor and scholar, Calvin continued to expand his knowledge base and his expertise by becoming a part-time labor arbitrator and mediator. He became one of the nation's most sought-after and trusted arbitrators, being selected to handle disputes in major industries, the public sector, and the sports industry, including the National Football League and the National Basketball Association. He also found time to complete his Master of Divinity degree in 1996.

Calvin’s excellence in teaching, scholarship, and service led to his being named to chaired professorships at CWRU: the John Deaver Drinko Baker Hostetler chair in 1999 and to the Galen J Roush chaired professorship in 2009, becoming emeritus when he retired in 2013.

Numerous friends and colleagues characterized Calvin for his extraordinary gentleness, empathy, generosity, and integrity. He was perennially upbeat countenance and ever ready with a kind word, good advice, and a hearty laugh. He had a friendly memory, asking about what you had previously shared as important in your life.

Calvin was married for over thirty years to Janice Jones. Calvin was proud of his children, active and interested in the growth of his kids Kabral, Stevie, Melanie and Nikki; his nieces and nephews- Moneer Masih-Tehrani, Kamante and Jerell Brown, Jamal and Cory Hipps, Keith, Anthony, Paul, Ryan, Rashon, and Chloe Sharpe, and his grandchildren, Isaiah and Zoe Sharpe.

Calvin loved music, jazz in particular. He annually communed with family and friends at the Sedona Jazz festival. He reliably contributed to the love, talk, teaching, and music of Thanksgivings in North Carolina with his extended Angelou-Johnson family, ever prepared to convene a barbershop quartet or to make music a cappella, or around a piano.

Not surprisingly, Calvin loved to sing. He loved to harmonize with others in song. Calvin was too, a founding member of the Cleveland Jazz Appreciation Group, which he and friends (Curtis English, Dr. Evan Morse, Dr. James DeBerry, Larry Simpson and others) convened monthly to listen to "straight ahead jazz," and engage in scholarly presentation and analysis of the musicians, their music, and period of record.

Although Calvin's health challenges forced him to retire in 2013 and to change his lifestyle of active engagement in discussion and music, he made the associated transitions with patience and grace. He lived with a strength of mind and sense of humor that few can exercise as well when challenged. Regardless of the limitations of his body and his voice, he maintained his masterful ability to connect with and love others and to promote peace until his final transition.

Calvin passed May 9, 2024, in Scottsdale, AZ.

He was predeceased by his father, Reverend Ralph Sharpe, his mothers Mildred and Cleo Sharpe, his brothers, Paul and Ralph, and his sisters, Muriel and Phyllis. He is survived by his wife, Jan, and his children, Kabral Sharpe, Stevie Sharpe Jones, Melanie Adrienne Jones, and Nikki S, his sisters, Permilla Hipps and Stephanie Murrill, and his grandchildren, Isaiah and Zoe,.

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