CSC graduate is president of Texas college

 The two-year college has about 9,000 students and is located about 50 miles west of Lubbock. Sharp became dean of arts and sciences at South Plains in July 1999 and was promoted to vice president for academic affairs six months later.

Sharp is a 1979 graduate of Chadron State, where he was a mathematics and physics major and an outstanding roper on the rodeo team. He won the team roping championship in the Great Plains Region of the National Intercollegiate Rodeo Association twice and was the runner-up once while attending CSC. He was inducted into the college’s Athletic Hall of Fame in 1996.

While his family had previously lived in Texas, he graduated from Tryon High School and taught there prior to returning to Texas. He earned his master’s degree and doctorate from Texas Tech University.

Before joining the administration at South Plains College, Sharp had taught in the high school at Claude, Tex., was a math and physical education teacher for seven years and dean of instruction three years at Clarendon College in Texas and was a math professor, coach of the rodeo team and an assistant in the development office at West Texas A&M University at Canyon four years

Sharp and his wife Lissa have two children, Lindsey, 7, and John, 4. His wife is the dean of student life at SPC.