By Jemi Chew
BUTLER — Phillip A. Sharp’s classmates from the Pendleton County High School class of 1962 know him as the 1993 Nobel Prize winner, and a humble but extremely successful scientist whose work changed the field of biology and saved countless lives by laying the foundation for medical treatment of various diseases.
Sharp Middle School in Butler is named for the famed geneticist and molecular biologist, and he is the subject of the documentary “Unlocking RNA: Dr. Sharp and Biotech Revolution.”
However, classmates also remember Sharp as a regular country boy who grew up on a farm, an intelligent and inquisitive student and an athlete (though not a very good one).
CHILDHOOD
Born 80 years ago in Falmouth, Sharp’s childhood, like many others in Pendleton County, consisted of working on a farm. His family grew tobacco and raised animals such as cows, chickens and pigs.
Sharp would get up before school between 6 to 6:30 a.m., do his farm chores, and then get ready to catch the school bus around 7:30 or 7:45 a.m. for a long ride to school.
Throughout the year, chores included milking cows, feeding the animals, cleaning up after the animals, repairing fences, baling hay and working in the fields.
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