WV Executive

HE WAS BORN in 1907 in the same small log home in which his father was born deep in the hills of Pocahontas County. He still remembers the first time he tasted his first sip of “real soda pop,” how he felt when he delivered the first of more than 2,000 babies and the grief he felt when his son died. Dr. Roland Sharp is well-known across the Mountain State for his work as a physician and as the first president at the West Virginia School of Osteopathic Medicine in Lewisburg. He has spent more than half a century working on the advice of his father who told him, “Do something you like and always do something for someone else.”

This past year the Pocahontas Communications Cooperative decided it was time to put those words of wisdom into a book: “Roland Sharp, County Doctor, Memories of a Life Well Lived.” When asked by Gibbs Kinderman of West Virginia Mountain Radio if he would like to help write this book about his life, the witty and charming 101-year-old Roland Sharp quipped, “Not only do I not want to write a book at my age, I don’t even want to read a book.” With the determination of those who have worked with him and loved him, and the gifted editing work of his granddaughter Paula Sharp Jones, this book was created as a solid piece of written history told by a man who helped do so many things for so many people.The book begins at the very beginning: the birth of Roland Sharp. One of six children, Sharp was raised on a farm right across the hill from Frost in Pocahontas County, West Virginia. On that farm Sharp began to hone his hard-work ethic and his appreciation for the beauty of a simple life and the simple words of his father.

“My dad said something to me then that has always stuck with me. ‘You don’t like hoeing this corn?’ he asked. ‘Just remember this: you don’t dig yourself out of poverty, you educate yourself out of poverty. So you hoe corn or go to school, whichever. That’s your choice.’ So after I had hoed enough corn, I decided I would rather educate myself out of poverty.”

Sharp was determined to educate himself, and although he spent most of his time studying and practicing medicine, he contends that most of his knowledge came from his experiences as a teacher and principal. Sharp taught at Cove Hill, Frost, Mt. Zion and Cummings Creek. In 1933, he served as Frost’s principal for the more than 80 students who shared only two rooms.

“I learned a lot about human nature from being with the kids and talking with them and their parents. I was one who really mixed with the community where I taught. I was a good barber and did that to get part of my way through college. In fact, I cut every kid’s hair and my mother told me, ‘Don’t you dare do that. Somebody will come in and tell you, ‘I can take care of my own kids.’’ She was leery when I took clippers to school. The kids were all shabby. I cut their hair—all of them. In every one-room school I had the best groomed bunch of kids. You know what happened? Their parents came and said, ‘Would you cut my hair?’”

Sharp earned his degrees by going to college in the spring and summer terms all while continuing to teach in Pocahontas County. He obtained his master’s degree in sociology from West Virginia University. Opportunity took him to Missouri’s Kirksville College of Osteopathic Medicine where he earned his medical degree and also taught histology, embryology and pathology.

Sharp came back to his beloved state and made history. He was the first physician to sign a contract to work with a union in West Virginia. He spent 17 years working with the United Mine Workers of America (U.M.W.A.). Sharp said although the time spent working for the U.M.W.A. was wonderful, he unfortunately saw too many deaths.

“There were more than 12 fatal accidents within the 17 years I was there. The mines that had the coal cars were the ones that had more accidents. The mines with the conveyers went accident-free.”

During his years practicing, Sharp helped save many lives through his skill and knowledge, but he recalls that some of his most remarkable cases were the ones that involved him taking a chance.

“There was only one time in the office that I didn’t feel qualified to do something, but I just felt it was a necessary. The patient was a little girl and only about 10 years old. She developed a cyst, a tumor, in the corner of her eye. There wasn’t any insurance or money to take her to the hospital. I told her parents to bring her to me but also told them I had never done surgery around the eye. They brought her in and it took about an hour to an hour and a quarter. We got the whole cyst out, intact, without rupturing it. And in about two weeks, that kid’s eye was about as nice as the other one. That’s the only thing I ever did that I wasn’t trained to do. The mistake too many doctors make is doing things that they’re not trained to do.”

Throughout his professional career, Sharp has been recognized as one of the leading physicians in the state. In 1987, he was awarded an Honorary Doctor of Science degree from West Virginia School of Osteopathic Medicine and, in 2006, an Honorary Doctor of Humanitarian Services from Concord University. Sharp also is an Honorary Patron of Kirksville College of Osteopathic Medicine and was given the West Virginia Distinguished Service Award by Governor Joe Manchin, III in 2007.

Sharp said in the 50 years he practiced medicine two of the most incredible advancements he saw are some of the most common treatments we use today in modern medicine.

“Of course, as you can imagine, there was very little in the advancement of drugs in 1945. In my lifetime, the discovery and development of cortisone and penicillin were giant moves forward in the treatment and prevention of disease.”

This book allows one to experience medicine through the eyes of one who made history. Sharp shows us through his actions that he truly lived a life doing something he liked by always doing something for someone else.

“Every plan I’ve made for my life as I saw it didn’t really turn out, but what actually took over in its place was so much better.”