Vale Robert Sharman 1928-2018

3 September 1994

The ASA is saddened by the passing of Robert Charles (Bob) Sharman after a long and productive life on the 28 August 2018 in Hobart. It is hard to do justice to Bob's extraordinary career and commitment to both the Australian archival and library professions.

Bob's pioneering influence was felt across Australia. He was the first State Archivist in two states, Tasmania 1951-1959 ,and then Queensland 1959-1970, before joining the ANU as its Archives Officer in 1970. From 1972-1976 Bob was Assistant State Librarian of South Australia and from 1976-1988 State Librarian of Western Australia.

Bob was a founding member of the ASA and the Sharman Award was created in 2000 to acknowledge his long contribution to fostering learning. In 1960 he was President, later Secretary, Archives Section, Library Association of Australia, and 1971-1972 President of Library Association of Australia (now ALIA). From 1991-1993 Bob served as ASA Treasurer. Bob was ASA Managing Editor from 1995-1997 and in 1996 was Convenor of the inaugural Mander Jones Awards Committee. In 1994 he was awarded a Fellowship of the ASA with the citation published in Archives & Manuscripts Vol.25(2) 1997.

A full obituary will be prepared as well as a special issue of Archives & Manuscripts, which Bob edited and fostered for 15 years from 1960-1975 when it was still the Journal of the Archives Section of the Library Association of Australia. The ASA undertook a series of interviews with founding members on the 40th anniversary of the ASA including Bob Sharman, available from our You Tube site.

For those in Hobart a memorial service is being held at the Scots Memorial Church, 29 Bathurst St, Hobart, Wednesday September 5, 2018 at 11.00am. On behalf of the ASA I will send our condolences to his family.

Julia Mant
President
Australian Society of Archivists Inc