Graduation day

Jace Radke

Monday, Dec. 18, 2000 | 11:17 a.m.

Retiring Sen. Richard Bryan, D-Nev., and University of Nevada-Reno President Joe Crowley received the accolades due their positions Sunday at UNLV's winter graduation, but one of the loudest ovations of the day was saved for 77-year-old graduate Mickey Sharpe.

While Bryan and Crowley were honored as they prepare to retire from public life, Sharpe showed he is hardly ready slow down. He received the nation's first baccalaureate in senior adult theater, and now he's contemplating what's next.

"I'm thinking about talking to groups of older people about getting more involved, maybe with acting," Sharpe said. "I'll find something to do. I alwe saidays have."

Sharpe, who worked for more than 50 years as a standup comedian, was chosen as one of the graduating class's outstanding students, and like some of his classmates, he sports a goatee and a gold hoop earring dangling from his left ear.

"I just got my ear pierced a couple months ago," Sharpe said. "I thought it went good with the beard. Some of the old cockers might look at me and wonder, 'What kind of crazy guy is this?' But that's OK with me."

Sharpe was one of 1,300 students who had the required credits to graduate at UNLV's 37th commencement ceremony held Sunday at the Thomas & Mack Center. More than 750 students participated in the ceremony that saw university President Carol Harter present Bryan an honorary doctorate of law degree.

Crowley, who presided over his last commencement ceremony Dec. 9 as president of UNR, was one of three recipients of the President's Medal for achievement. Bonnie Bryan, Nevada's former first lady and Sen. Bryan's wife, and current Nevada first lady Dema Guinn also received President's Medals for their work in civic affairs and health issues in Nevada.

The commencement also marked the first graduates of the Boyd Law School.

The average age of the graduating class was 29 years old, with the youngest graduate just 20 years old and Sharpe the oldest.

The senior adult theater degree progra m is the first of its kind in the country, and requires students to get a certificate in gerontology while taking the required theater and acting classes. The program focuses on training in acting, directing and writing, Ann McDonough, gerontology program adviser, said.

"We've had the senior adult theater degree for about two years, and Mickey is the first to earn it," McDonough said. "What strikes me about Mickey is his perseverance. He has the guts to go to classes with students half his age, and even at his age he is showing people that it's never too late."

Sharpe has always had guts, from his days as an 18-year-old enlisted soldier in Illinois during World War II, when he went out of his way to arrange some entertainment for the troops.

"I wrote a letter to the commanding officer, which you weren't supposed to do, but we got the American Guild of Variety Artists," Sharp said. "I think some of the entertainers felt a little guilty that they weren't in the Army, so we ended up with a couple shows a week. I ended up being promoted to corporal in my first week in the Army."

It was as a master of ceremonies at one of those shows that Sharpe was seen by an agent, who offered to represent him when he got out of the Army. That was the beginning of his comedy career.

Over the years Sharpe made radio appearances, played the Sahara and El Cortez hotel-casinos and worked with such stars as Nelson Eddy and Jeanette MacDonald. Later he spent 15 years as a rotating act at the Playboy clubs, and 16 years as an act on Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines.

"I've crisscrossed the world, and seen places like Australia and New Zealand," Sharpe said. "It just seems everything has been fated for me."

Sharpe moved to Las Vegas with his wife seven years ago and started taking classes at the university a couple of years later, after learning that UNLV offers free tuition for students age 62 or older. He finished with a grade point average of 3.75.

"It took me five years to graduate instead of four, but it was hard work," Sharpe said. "I'm not real normal for age 77, and I'm well aware of it, but I'll take it."