Clair Ann Sharpless

Falmouth-Clair Ann Whiting Sharpless passed away peacefully, surrounded by her family, on March 15, 2023 at the age of 84. She was born on July 23, 1938, in Cincinnati, to Kathryn May Townsley Whiting and Carson Ross Whiting. She graduated from Walnut Hills High School, class of 1956, and Northwestern University, class of 1960, where she was a member of the Alpha Chi Omega sorority. Heeding President Kennedy’s call to service, Clair joined the inaugural class of the Peace Corps in 1961, serving for two years in the Philippines as a teachers’ aide. While in training for the Peace Corps, she met her husband, Thomas, and they married in 1964. She earned a Master’s Degree in Speech and Language Pathology from the University of Florida in Gainesville and worked as a speech therapist at the Starke County, Florida public schools, the University of Florida, and the University of Hartford. As a student in Gainesville, she protested the Vietnam War and joined the fight for racial justice, including the desegregation of lunch counters. For almost fifty years, Clair lived in Simsbury, Connecticut, where she was named a Hometown Hero in 1989. She was a founding board member of Simsbury Community TV and the Hartford Area Cable TV Council and a co-founder of the Simsbury Food Co-op. She served on the boards of the Simsbury Historical Society, Simsbury Garden Club, and Old Drake Hill Flower Bridge. She spent many years as a Girl Scout leader and member of the Simsbury Girl Scout Service Team. She supported non-profit organizations that reflect her values of equality and freedom of speech, her dedication to reproductive freedom, and her concern for the environment. Her greatest pleasures have been her many friends, her well-kept gardens, her book group, the ballet, her travel adventures, and her deeply loved grandchildren. In her later years, she enjoyed splitting time between Miami and Falmouth, Maine. Clair is survived by her husband Thomas W. Sharpless; daughters, Rebecca and Kathryn Sharpless, sons-in-law, Andrew Stanton and Jeffrey Kew; grandchildren, Kathleen and Carson Stanton-Sharpless, and Ryan and Lillian Kew. Services for Clair will be held at a later date. Arrangements are under the direction of the Conroy-Tully Walker Funeral Home, 172 State Street, Portland, ME. To view Clair’s memorial page, or to share an online condolence, please visit www.ConroyTullyWalker.com Those who wish may make memorial contributions in Clair’s memory to: Roaring Brook Nature Center roaringbrook.org or Old Drake Hill Flower Bridge, PO Box 314, West Simsbury, CT 06092.