An enthusiastic, positive thinker, Curtis L. Sharp had the ideal nature to succeed in business. And he did.
With his wife and sister-in-law, Mr. Sharp started a catering company in 1983 and over the next 20 years helped build it into a premier special event caterer and contract food-service provider as well as a multimillion dollar company.
“It was his pride and joy to build this business,” said his wife, Nancy. “He had great vision for it. This is quite a legacy for one man.”
Mr. Sharp, 51, of Evanston, chairman and former president of Food for Thought Enterprise, died of lung cancer Thursday, Jan. 22, in St. Joseph Hospital, Chicago.
Raised in Smithfield, R.I., Mr. Sharp attended the University of South Florida in Tampa, where he got a degree in business and met his future wife, fellow student Nancy. The couple married in 1986.
After graduating in 1978, Mr. Sharp worked for Eastern Airlines in Florida, then Boston, before returning to Florida where he and his wife worked in hospitality and banquet services for caterers and at hotels.
“We wanted to open a catering business, so we came back to Chicago where I am from,” his wife said. “We started it–my sister Sue, myself and Curt–because we had a passion to be the best we could be in special events catering.” The name, she said, came during a brainstorming session around their kitchen table.
The company began as a storefront on Central Avenue in Evanston. Its first employees were the partners who did all the cooking, loading of trucks and contracting. The company now has more than 200 employees. It moved to a larger site four years ago in Lincolnwood, but retained the intimacy its clients relied on.
The cafe at Adler Planetarium and Astronomy Museum is among the 13 cafe programs managed by Mr. Sharp’s company. It also is Adler’s single source caterer for galas and other special events.
“Curt was a great guy,” said Margaret Marek, Adler’s executive vice president and chief operating officer. “He has been wonderful to work with, a really caring person, always supportive and available.”
Mr. Sharp’s company has been a steady customer through the years of Hall’s Rental Services, said Jack Luft, one of Hall’s owners.
“We are all sad here, but I can’t help smiling when I think of him, because he had boundless energy and was such an optimistic person, so full of life,” Luft said. “He always had a good word and joke for everybody, a wonderful guy. They still run their business as if it’s a little storefront. That is a tribute to Curt and Nancy. Everybody is family to them; that’s the way they are.”
Mr. Sharp was a devoted member of the Evanston Rotary.
“He believed in making a contribution to this world on all levels, by serving his community, family, friends and company,” his wife said.
An avid golfer, he played “every time the sun would shine and he could get away from business and family,” she said.
Other survivors include a son, Adam; a daughter, Rosie; his mother, Dorothy Sharp; two brothers, Jack and Steve; and a sister Sandy Cole.
Visitation will be held from 3 to 8 p.m., Sunday, in Donnellan Family Funeral Home, 10045 Skokie Blvd., Skokie. Mass will be said at 5 p.m., Monday, in St. Nicholas Catholic Church, 806 Ridge Ave., Evanston.
