Paul H. Sharar

Glen Rock - Paul H. Sharar, who directed international initiatives for the YMCA and helped design pioneering programs for educationally and economically disadvantaged youth in NYC during the War on Poverty, died on August 12, 2025, in Glen Rock, NJ. He was 94. Mr. Sharar was born April 27, 1931, in Iowa to Paul B. and Dorothy Sharar. His father founded Clinton Community College, and his mother was a teacher and civic leader. He received a Bachelor of Arts from Ohio Wesleyan University, a Master of Divinity from Boston University, where he studied at the same time as the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and a Ph.D. in organizational psychology from Columbia University. His doctoral research led to the federally funded Training Resources for Youth (TRY) Project, the nation's first Urban Job Corps center, which became a model for workforce development. Dr. Sharar began his YMCA career at the Ridgewood, N.J., branch before moving to the YMCA of Greater New York, where he served as Executive Director of the Counseling and Testing Service. In the turbulent summer of 1967, his team worked in Harlem to provide recreation, counseling, and jobs for young people, helping to ease unrest. He also created programs for veterans, mothers on public assistance, immigrants, and people recently released from prison. Later, as part of the YMCA's international division, he traveled widely to build cultural exchanges, working with colleagues in Japan and Korea. He collaborated for more than fifty years with Columbia psychologist Dr. Winthrop Adkins, who described him as a leader of "vision, discipline, and integrity." Mr. Sharar and his wife, Helen, were longtime members of Ridgewood United Methodist Church and active in local nonprofits. Friends remembered him for his calm leadership, ingenuity, integrity, warmth, and faith. His wife, Helen, predeceased him. He is survived by his daughters, Kathryn Sharar Prusinski, Carol Sharar and her husband Robert Lutz, Connie Sharar, and Linda Sharar and her wife, Cory Collins; his sister, Carol Straumanis; and grandchildren, Zephyr Prusinski, Griffin Conway, Maya Sharar, and Kennedy Sharar, as well as nieces, nephews, and extended family. A memorial service will be held at Ridgewood United Methodist Church, Ridgewood, NJ, on Saturday, Sept. 13, 2025 at 10 a.m.