Martha and Waitstill Sharp Collection (MS.2011.008)

Biographical / Historical

Martha Sharp was born Martha Ingham Dickie on April 25, 1905 to James Edward Ingham and Elizabeth Alice Whelan. She graduated from Pembroke College, the women's college of Brown University, in 1926 and then studied Social Work at Northwestern University's Recreation Training School. Waitstill Sharp was born on May 1, 1902 to Dallas Sharp and Grace Hastings both Americans. Waitstill Sharp graduated from Boston University with a degree in history and economics. He graduated from Harvard Law School in 1926 and attended Harvard Divinity School. Martha and Waitstill married in 1928. They had two children: Hastings Sharp born in 1931 and Martha Content Sharp Joukowsky born in 1936.

Waitstill was ordained a minister in the Unitarian Church in 1933 and was assigned to a church in Meadville, PA. The American Unitarian Association (AUA) chose the Sharps to go to Czechoslovakia in 1939 to assist refugees and their emigration. They then worked for the Unitarian Service Committee (USC) to assist French refugees beginning in June 1940. They were stationed in Lisbon, Portugal and arranged for the shipment of condensed milk from the Nestle Company. Martha Sharp remained in Marseille, France and was instrumental in the emigration of 27 children and 10 adults. This project became a collaborative effort between the Unitarian Service Committee and the United States Committee for the Care of European Children. Martha Sharp became acting director of the Lisbon office in 1944-1945. By May 1945, she had helped to facilitate the emigration of 20 Spanish Republicans to Venezuela and 75 to Mexico.

Martha unsuccessfully ran for Congress in 1946, in the 4th Congressional district in Massachusetts. Her opponent, Joseph Martin, attacked her for being a Communist and the USC as an organization sympathetic to Communism. Soon after her defeat, Martha accepted a position for a few years in Washington, DC, as Associate Director of Civil Defense for women and children.

Waitstill and Martha Sharp divorced in June 1954. Waitstill Sharp married Monica Allard Clark in 1955, and Martha Sharp married David H. Cogan in 1957. Waitstill Sharp retired from the pulpit in 1972 and passed away in 1983. Martha Sharp continued to be involved with organizations assisting Czechoslovakia and Israel throughout her life. After the death of her second husband, she became very involved with the David H. Cogan Foundation, established in his memory. She also began writing about her rescue efforts in Prague, Czechoslovakia, and Pau, France. She died in 1999 at the age of ninety-four. She and her first husband, Waitstill Sharp, were named Righteous Among the Nations by Israel's National Holocaust Museum, Yad Vashem, in 2006.

To view the Guide to the Martha and Waitstill Sharp Collection created by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum click here.