Evelyn Sharp; Hotelier and Philanthropist

Evelyn Sharp, businesswoman and philanthropist on both coasts, has died. She was 94.

She died Sunday of heart failure in New York.

Widowed in 1941, Sharp took over Sharp Hotels, which included owning and managing the luxurious Beverly Wilshire Hotel in Beverly Hills and several other hotels on the East Coast. She sold the hotels in 1961 but continued to manage them.

“I want to give this hotel a personal touch,” she told The Times in 1958 when she was remodeling the Beverly Wilshire. “Something different than ordinary, with lots of flowers all around. That’s part of Southern California, isn’t it--flowers? Why not make use of them?”

Sharp endowed a graduate fellowship in behavioral biology at Caltech and was active in the support group the Associates of Caltech. In 1952, she established the Evelyn Sharp Foundation, which makes donations to charitable and cultural causes.

During World War II, she earned the Navy Commendation Medal for her work with the USO, which entertains American servicemen.

Later, she served as a trustee of the Menninger Foundation, where she donated the Sharp House for outpatients; served on the board of New York’s Planned Parenthood and donated the Evelyn Sharp Laboratory for Nuclear Medicine to the Hospital for Special Surgery in New York City.

An avid art collector, Sharp exhibited her collection at the Guggenheim Museum in 1978 and later funded the Sharp Gallery at New York’s Metropolitan Museum.

Born in New York, Sharp was educated at the Columbia University School of Journalism.

Survivors include a daughter, four grandchildren and six great-grandchildren.

The family has asked that any memorial donations be made to the New York chapter of Planned Parenthood of New York City, 26 Bleecker St., New York, N.Y. 10012.