Charlotte Gillette Sharp

"Candy" (Age 73) Died on May 10, 2018, at the Mandrin Hospice House in Harwood, Maryland. The cause of death was complications from a stroke suffered three weeks earlier. Candy is survived by her husband, David Sharp, and stepchildren Michael Sharp who lives in Boulder, Colorado and Samantha Britt Geehring who lives in Monroe, North Carolina with her husband, Ron, and their two children, Lillian and Ron II. Candy is also survived by her brother, Gary "Gee" Gillette and his wife, Roseanne, who live in San Clemente, California; niece Andrea "Andi" Gillette who also lives in San Clemente; and nephew Brad Gillette who lives in Boise, Idaho. Candy was born in Toronto, Canada on November 21, 1944, to Louis Gillette and Virginia Hutton Gillette (both now deceased). Her parents moved to the United States when Candy was two years old and she became an American citizen. Candy grew up in Arcadia, California where she was very active in sports. In her early teens she won the California Juniors Championship for Pairs Roller Skating. She also participated actively in Horse Gymkhana competitions, winning frequently with her prized Quarter Horse. In 1975 Candy met her future husband, David, while they were both working in Los Angeles on the AZORIAN program, a classified CIA effort to covertly raise and exploit for intelligence purposes a sunken Soviet nuclear-armed submarine that was lost in the Central North Pacific Ocean at a depth of over three miles. At the conclusion of that program, both Candy and David moved to the East Coast of the United States, settling in Edgewater, Maryland where they were married in 1978. Candy worked as a sales rep in the field of office furniture leasing until she was 50 years old, retiring to spend more time with her special hobbies and interests. She was an active participant in competitive golf, sailboat racing, and car racing. Her favorite activity, however, was pottery, a hobby that she pursued along with a handful of her very best friends for over 20 years under the expert tutelage of Professor Rick Malmgren and Tom Pergola, both from the Anne Arundel Community College in Arnold, Maryland. Candy chose to be cremated and there is no public ceremony planned. In lieu of flowers, the family requests that a charitable contribution be made to a cause of the giver's choice.