Randy Sharp

Randy passed away on Monday, October 19, 2026 after a short illness in hospital. His family, Carol, Sam, and Nicola, were with him during his final days. Randy will be remembered as living with joy, optimism and resilience. In his final months, despite his Parkinson’s Disease, he was living life fully, going to concerts, zooming around the city on his scooter, and taking joy in connecting with friends and family.

Randy was born in Ithaca, New York and lived in South Bend, Indiana during his teenage years. He spent his childhood skiing in the winter and water skiing behind the family’s boat, the Cindy Mae, in summer. He continued to return to Lake Michigan each summer after he had children to spend time with his parents and his sister Cyndi’s family.

Randy went to the University of Oregon in Eugene for Landscape Architecture, and migrated to Vancouver as a young adult. There he established his career, met his partner Carol, and built a community through a shared love of music, travel and landscape architecture.

He loved landscape architecture and would look for any opportunity to talk about green roofs, green walls, and stormwater management. Randy co-founded Sharp and Diamond Landscape Architecture in 1980. When Sam and Nicola were children, he would take them around to parks and water spray parks he designed, using them photo models.

Later in his career, he became an advocate for green infrastructure. He was an early adopter with an experimental green roof in his own garage in Kitsilano, which became a tour spout for many other green infrastructure enthusiasts. He actively shared his learnings through teaching, conference presentations, writing magazine articles, and contributing to the City of Vancouver initiatives like the Rain City Strategy and the Green Roof Best Practices Guide. Even after retiring in 2015, Randy continued to advocate for sustainable development, perform Salmon-Safe inspections, and share his passion with the next general of landscape architects.

Randy loved to travel. While his kids were growing up, his family would go on a big trip every few years – travelling to places like Belize, Morocco, Spain and Bali. Randy was curious, loved trying new foods, and frequently could be found lagging behind his family when he found an interesting stormwater grate to photograph.

Randy loved music. In his younger days, his friends and him hosted Spartex, a series of thematic dance parties. These events spoke to his alternative career dream of being a DJ. He loved going to live music shows, large and small, across the city. Summer time was his favourite in Vancouver with the Jazz Festival and Folk Festival. He accrued a massive music collection of records and CDs across all genres. Music has always been an easy connection point when meeting new people because his interests were so broad – from the latest trendy artist, to his beloved cumbia, and other forms of world music.

Randy loved his family and friends unconditionally. He lived with patience and acceptance, and found things to appreciate in everyone. He was deeply grateful for simple things, and he lived life in the moment. He is missed and he is loved.

Randy’s family is grateful for the care he received at UBC hospital during his final days, as well as the larger team who supported him at home including his family doctor, home care support, and Jacquie 🩵

In lieu of flowers, you are welcome to contribute to a cause Randy cared about, such as Parkinson Canada, Wilderness Committee or an organization of your choosing.

A celebration of life will be held in spring or summer of 2027.