Martha (née Dickie) Sharp was born and died in Rhode Island (1905-1999).  Her parents divorced and she was raised by relatives.  She went to Pembroke College and studied social work, going to Hull House in Chicago where she helped supervise 500 girls.  She met and married Waitstill Sharp (1902-1983) who was born in Boston and who attended Boston University,  Harvard Law School, and then Harvard Divinity School where he became a Unitarian Minister.  Martha and Waitstill took an interest in refugees when Hitler came to power and their articles and work led the AUA to send them to Czechoslovakia to help Unitarians and other refugees from occupied Sudetenland.  They did so until the Gestapo closed their office.  They then moved to Lisbon in 1940 and helped refugees from France, especially Jewish children that they relocated in Great Britain and later in 1943 in Palestine.  They worked with other groups during the war and participated in the escape of more than 1000 refugees from German occupation.  In 1945 the Unitarian and Universalist Service Committees merged to form the UUSC.  Their work has centered on refugee relief, education, civil rights, and health in areas where war, disaster, famine, or other disruption occurred.  The Sharps ended their marriage in 1954 and each later remarried. They were honored in Israel for their efforts to save Jews during WWII.

(PBS will air "Defying the Nazis: The Sharps' War" tomorrow, Tuesday, September 20 at 9/8c, a film about the Sharps' work in Europe during WWII. See details below. --Ed.)