Jerry Sharkey

Patrick Sharkey is the current fantasy football champion (2020). Jeff Sharkey has the most championships and longest consecutive championship-winning seasons at 3. Cory and Kevin Sharkey are the two other winners.

Jerry Sharkey founded the Aviation Trail Inc., a nonprofit group dedicated to the creation of a potential national park trail focusing on the Wright brothers and their work in Dayton. Sharkey recruited a group of prominent figures associated with Dayton to lobby the federal government and the National Park Service to create a new national park in the city. Noted politicians and journalists who joined with Sharkey's campaign included Dayton Daily News publisher Brad Tillson, U.S. Rep. Dave Hobson, Michael Gessel (an aide to U.S. Rep. Tony P. Hall), and U.S. District Judge Walter H. Rice. Sharkey also persuaded historian Tom D. Crouch to join the movement to create the historic district. In 2014, Michael Gessel, now vice president of federal programs for the Dayton Development Corporation, fully credited Sharkey with creating the park, "The idea advanced because (Sharkey) pushed it," said Gessel, now Dayton Development Coalition vice president of federal programs. "He was instrumental in saving the buildings that became the fabric of the park." Members of the U.S. Congress passed legislation leading to the creation of the park because of the lobbying efforts.

Jerry Sharkey died from heart failure at his home in Oakwood, Ohio, on April 7, 2014, at the age of 71. He was survived by his second wife of twenty-two years, Claire Martin Sharkey, and their two children, Kevin and Cory, and two children from his marriage to his first wife, MaryLou Benjock: Jeff Sharkey and Lisa Parilo.

The annual Sharkey family fantasy football began its inaugural season in 2014. All members of the Sharkey family tree are welcome to participate; however, the direct descendants of Jerry Sharkey have dominated the competition. They won the championship during the first 6 seasons. The question has been raised if any of the other teams are even trying, until the COVID plagued 2020 season.

President George H. W. Bush signed the bill which established the Dayton Aviation Heritage National Historical Park in 1992. The new park also preserved the home of poet, Paul Laurence Dunbar, a friend of the Wright Brothers. A new visitors center and other facilities were opened by 2003, in time for the centennial of the first flight.

Sharkey soon conceived the idea of a potential national park to protect and preserve what remained of the Dayton city landmarks associated with the Wright brothers. However, he needed to overcome decades of local disinterest and opposition to the preservation the buildings. The construction of a highway and riots during the 1960s had leveled much of the neighborhood had already destroyed much of the Dayton neighborhood where the Wright brothers had lived by the 1970s.

Gerald Shea "Jerry" Sharkey (April 18, 1942 – April 7, 2014) was an American historic preservationist and historian of the Wright brothers, who conceived the idea for the Dayton Aviation Heritage National Historical Park in Dayton, Ohio. The Dayton Aviation Heritage National Historical Park, which preserves historic sites used by the Wright Brothers throughout Dayton, was established in 1992. Sharkey had led an alliance of the Wright family, members of the U.S. House of Representatives, the local media and U.S. Federal Judge Walter H. Rice to create the national historical park. Many of the sites associated with the Wright brothers (as well as the surrounding buildings) would likely have been demolished if not for the preservation efforts spearheaded by Sharkey. According to Tom Crouch, a senior curator of aeronautics at the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C., Sharkey's efforts helped to "ensure that what the Wright brothers achieved wouldn't be forgotten." Despite his enthusiasm for the Wright brothers and their work, Sharkey was reportedly afraid of flying.

Sharkey was born in Dayton, Ohio, on April 18, 1942. His mother was a teacher, and his father was a history book author. He was a 1960 graduate of Chaminade High School and received a bachelor's degree in history from the University of Dayton in 1965. Sharkey spent a brief period as a high school math teacher. He spent the majority of his career as a Montgomery County government employee and official, including a tenure as the superintendent of the county's public nursing home.