Rosalie Sharp Canadian, 1936

Rosalie Sharp was born and raised in North Toronto growing up in Jewish home in the 1930s.  She is the editor of Growing Up Jewish, and the author of Me & Issy: A Four Seasons Romance.  Sharp attended OCAD University while raising four children, alongside her spouse Isadore Sharp, founder of Four Seasons Hotels’.  Graduating OCAD in 1968 with the Lieutenant Governor’s Medal, Sharp founded Rosalie Wise Design Inc., to which she is responsible for the design and style of the Four Seasons Hotels’ interiors, as her most recognizable project. The Rosalie Sharp Centre for Design is now an architectural landmark, and has received a number of awards.

Rosalie Sharp was named OCAD’s first chancellor in 2004, as well as chair of the board of trustees.  She continued to write six books outlining her expertise, her life, with an intriguing conversational style to her text.  2010 marked the end of her design business in her determination to follow her passion and paint.  Her latest work considers abstract, bold uses of colour, oil on canvas.  When asked for the plan before beginning her work, Sharp recalls, “I have no idea what I am going to do.  Painting is collaborative between me, the canvas, and the brush.”

Rosalie Sharp has an incredible history and a beautiful family of four boys, five grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren, who she continues to inspire and never ceases to amaze.