By Elliott Brack,
Editor and publisher, GwinnettForum
MARCH 17, 2026 | About 25 members of Frank Sharp’s high school class in Maynardville, Tenn., gathered Saturday at a restaurant like they do every six months. Some would learn of the death of their classmate, while all recalled memories of him.
Readers of GwinnettForum will remember that, for perhaps 15 years, Frank Sharp of Lawrenceville was a regular contributor of both photographs and travel articles. While there are no paid employees of the Forum, he was so regular that we named him Roving Photographer. He sent us local photographs but also others from his far-reaching travel adventures. He also put his blown-up photos on exhibits in local libraries and community centers.
A couple of years ago, Frank’s photos and stories stopped coming in. We lost track of him. Then recently we got a call from Jim Steiner of Knoxville, Tenn., wanting to know if we had heard from Frank Sharp. He and his classmates of the 1960 class of Horace Maynard High School hadn’t heard from him either. Frank would make the long trip (about 250 miles) to their meetings. That call emphasized to us that we had not heard from Frank, and put us searching.
Frank’s wife, Pearl, died on Oct. 1, 2022, and it shook Frank hard. One of Frank’s activities was to attend regularly the Lawrenceville Senior Center luncheons. We learned last week from Joan Moliki of Dacula, who also attended these lunches and was a friend of Frank, that he had died.
She had visited his home and Frank was not doing well. She got him to go to a hospital and visited him there. The hospital had transferred him, but as a non-relative, Joan was unable to learn where. Finally, somehow, she found that Frank had died on Feb. 20, 2025 at age 83. His two stepsons did not have a funeral service or write an obituary. His body was cremated.
Over the years that we knew Frank, we often would have lunch with him in places around Gwinnett, or he would visit our office, or I would see him at his home. He was smart as a whip, had a good education and was fun to talk to. He had worked with several major corporations, and had a good retirement. From time to time, he would show off a new camera and tell what special features it had.
Knowing of the gathering in Tennessee of Frank’s classmates, we decided to visit with them at a remembrance last Saturday. In a phone call, a cousin of Frank’s from Michigan, Peggy Wilson, told us that Frank’s grandmother had a husband also named Frank, and decided to call the guy we knew as Frank as Tommy. It stuck. His classmates knew him as Tom or Tommy.
A classmate, Julie Love, said (of Tommy): “Oh, he was so very smart, the smartest in our class. Where all of us took four subjects, Tommy took five subjects and did well in all of them.” A photo in the class yearbook showed Frank with his crew-cut hair. There were 102 in Frank’s graduating class. Steiner says that 48 members are still living.
It was a delight hearing Frank’s (Tommy’s) classmates remember him. The Rev. James Russell concluded the remembrance with a prayer in his memory.
Frank Sharp: 1941-2025: May you rest in peace.
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