Georgiana Sheldon Sharp, 88, who was the first woman to serve on the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and who held other high-ranking government posts, died July 17 of cardiac arrest at George Washington University Hospital.
A son-in-law, Gary Swift, confirmed the death.
Mrs. Sharp, who was casually known as “Georgi,” was an executive assistant to the Republican National Committee before joining the staff in the early 1960s of Rep. Rogers C.B. Morton (R-Md.). He later served as secretary of the interior under President Richard M. Nixon and secretary of commerce under President Gerald R. Ford.
From 1969 to 1975, Mrs. Sharp was deputy director of what was then the Defense Civil Preparedness Agency. She later served as director of foreign disaster relief at the U.S. Agency for International Development.
Mrs. Sharp was vice chairman of the U.S. Civil Service Commission before being appointed to the Federal Energy Regulation Commission in 1977 by President Jimmy Carter. She retired in 1985.
In a 1985 interview with The Washington Post, Mrs. Sharp, a Republican, lamented the lack of respect shown to government workers by the public and by the new, 1980s breed of Republicans.
“They have preconceived ideas that all those bureaucrats sit around and do nothing all day,” she said. “After a few years, I can tell you that’s not true. I think there’s a vast difference in what’s happened to the perception of government in the last few years. And I’m very concerned about it.”
Georgiana Hortense Sheldon was born in Lawrenceville, Pa., and she grew up in Avon, N.Y. She graduated in 1945 from Keuka College in Keuka Park, N.Y., and she received a master’s degree in education from Cornell University in 1950.
She lived in Rosslyn for many years and was a member of the Washington Golf and Country Club. In later years, Mrs. Sharp was a consultant and a member of corporate boards. She was also a member of the Women’s Forum and Executive Women in Government, among other groups.
Her husband of five years, James R. Sharp, died in 1985. A stepson, James L. Sharp, died in 2010.
Survivors include two stepdaughters, Judy Sharp Lombardi of Fairhope, Ala., and Suzy S. Swift of Kilmarnock, Va.; nine grandchildren; and 14 great-grandchildren.
— Matt Schudel
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