Texas Lyceum to honor John Sharp, ex-chancellor of the A&M System, at a Galveston luncheon Thursday

The Texas Lyceum will honor John Sharp, the former chancellor of the Texas A&M University System, in Galveston this week, presenting him with the Stewardship of Texas Values Award for 2026.

The nonpartisan statewide leadership group lists the presentation as a luncheon at noon on Nov. 12. On its event page, the organization said its past chairs picked Sharp by a unanimous vote and that money raised at this year's luncheon will go toward its mission of promoting civil discourse. The honor comes as the group marks its 46th anniversary, the Lyceum said.

Sharp belongs to the Lyceum's class of 1987 and grew up in Placedo, according to the organization. KBTX reported that Nolan Ryan, Roger Staubach, Ross Perot and former President George H.W. Bush are among the award's earlier recipients.

"I was a little bit shocked," Sharp told KBTX in an interview about the honor.

A career in Austin and College Station

Sharp won his first race for the Texas House in 1978 and was later a Democratic statewide officeholder; the A&M System named him chancellor in 2011, KBTX reported. The station said he has since moved to Austin, where he advises startup companies.

In the interview, Sharp singled out Bryan's RELLIS campus as one of the accomplishments he believes will last, predicting that "20 years from now, we're going to look back and go, oh, wow, what an explosive research dynamo that has turned out to be."

He also cited a newer project, the Texas A&M University Space Institute, which KBTX said will open within weeks at Exploration Park, the NASA site beside Johnson Space Center in Houston. Sharp told the station the building's footprint matches Kyle Field's and that it will give companies and universities a place to test robots on simulated lunar and Martian terrain.

Views on the governor's race

KBTX spoke with Sharp days after Democrat Gina Hinojosa unseated Republican Gov. Greg Abbott in returns that remain unofficial until the state canvass. Sharp told the station he sees the result as part of a recurring cycle in Texas politics.

"The pendulum is always swinging in politics. It generally swings in the middle," he said, adding that he considers Texas "a moderately conservative state" and that officials who govern toward the center tend to keep voters' support.

Sharp noted that Hinojosa worked as an intern in his office during his years as state comptroller, and he told KBTX he expects she "is going to really surprise people about how good a governor she is."

He also said he anticipates less political conflict in public schools and universities, telling the station, "Public education is not going to be the place to fight a whole bunch of culture wars."

Sources

KBTX

texaslyceum.org

texaslyceum.org