Feb.
11, 1932 - July 10, 2009GRANGER - The Honorable Allen Sharp, Judge, U.S. District Judge for the Northern District of Indiana, 77, passed away at his home in Granger on July 10, 2009. Judge Sharp was born in Washington, D.C., on February 11, 1932. Judge Sharp was appointed United States District Judge for the Northern District of Indiana on October 11, 1973, and entered duty November 1, 1973. He was Chief Judge from December 11, 1981, to December 31, 1996. At the time of his death, Judge Sharp had assumed Senior Status and still had a large docket of cases both in South Bend and Lafayette. He attended Indiana State Teachers College; George Washington University, receiving an A.B. degree in 1954; Indiana University, receiving a J.D. degree in 1957; and Butler University, receiving a master's degree in history in 1986. He received the Honorary Doctor of Civil Laws degree from Indiana State University in 1979. Prior to his appointment to the federal bench, Judge Sharp served as a Judge of the Appellate Court of Indiana (now Court of Appeals) from 1969 to 1973. He served in the United States Air Force Reserve from 1957 to 1984, achieving the rank of lieutenant colonel. He practiced law in Williamsport, Indiana, from 1957 to 1968, where he successfully argued Hopkins v. Cohen, 390 U.S. 530 (1968) before the United States Supreme Court. He has authored several historical articles, including a chapter in America's Lawyer Presidents, (Northwestern University Press 2004); a chapter in History of Indiana Law, (Ohio University Press 2005); Presidents as Supreme Court Advocates, The Supreme Court Historical Society Journal, Vol. 28, No. 2 (2003); An Echo of the War: The Aftermath of the Exparte Milligan Case; Traces, Summer 2003; Free at Last: How the Powell Fugitive Slave Family Became and Stayed Free; The Supreme Court Historical Society Quarterly, Vol. 17, No. 1 (1996); The Transcontinental Career of Edwin Crocker, Traces, Fall 1997; The Sequel to Milligan: The Civil Law Suit, The Supreme Court Historical Society Quarterly, Vol. 19, No. 1 (1998); and The Milligan Aftermath: A Celebrity Civil Rights Case, Litigation, Summer 1998; as well as an American Bar Association Journal article in 1968 on Social Security Cases; a Case and Comment article in 1983 on Post-Verdict Interviews with Jurors; and a 1980-81 Air Force Law Review article on Reservists Employment Rights. Judge Sharp has had extensive experience in the federal judiciary during the more than three decades of his service. He has presided in civil and criminal jury trials in seven different locations in four different U.S. districts. Additionally, he has sat by designation on four United States Courts of Appeal in Chicago, Illinois, Washington, D.C., New Orleans, Louisiana, and Cincinnati, Ohio. Judge Sharp is survived by two daughters, Crystal Catholyn Sharp Bauer of Valparaiso, Indiana, and Scarlet Frances Thomas of Zeeland, Michigan; son-in-law, Timothy Thomas; and three grandsons, Evan Allen Bauer, Andrew Patrick Bauer and Nathaniel Blaise Thomas. He was a member of the Indiana State Bar Association, the Bar Association of the Seventh Federal Circuit and the Indiana Judges Association. Outside the courtroom, Judge Sharp also distinguished himself as a scholar by serving as Adjunct Professor of History at Butler University in Indianapolis, Indiana, at Indiana University South Bend, and at Milligan College in Milligan College, Tennessee. Funeral services will be held at 1 p.m. Wednesday, July 15th, in the Welsheimer Family Funeral Home North, 17033 Cleveland Road, South Bend, IN. Friends may visit with the family from 4-9 p.m. Tuesday in the funeral home. Graveside services will be held at 1 p.m. Thursday, July 16th, at New Bellsville Cemetery, New Bellsville, IN (Brown County). Family and friends may leave e-mail condolences at welshfh@yahoo.com. (Due to construction, entrance to the funeral home must be from Hickory Road; head south on Hickory from Brick Road.)