and just what an impact she had on people until after she passed, and people started coming up to me and telling me everything,” husband Tim Crockett said. “She was the best person I've ever met.”

     Sharon began impacting her students when they first entered elementary school, being the friendly face who greeted them in the library and was always willing to provide book recommendations tailored to their personalities. Once they entered fourth grade, her students could join her FIRST Lego League (FLL) robotics team, where she helped ignite a passion for science concepts and foster an interest in exploration in each of her students. 

     “She allowed me to see the confidence and capabilities that I have in myself and actually apply those in my life,” junior Rachel Nelson said. “She helped push me through FLL, grow my confidence, leadership skills, public speaking skills, all of those, in ways that weren’t pressuring but were also hard at the same time.”

     During all of her FLL and Battle of the Books practices, Sharon would give out Dum Dums to her students and collect the wrappers. She then started an Etsy page where she sold earrings made from these wrappers, and her students would wear them to their competitions.

     “When you're growing up in those schools, the kids are from broken homes or a lot of places that aren't very nice, they could go see Mrs. Crockett, and Mrs. Crockett might have a Dum Dum for them or just sit and talk to them like they're people,” Tim said. “[She didn’t] patronize them and talk down to them like they're little kids, but she talked to them like they're real people, and the respect was there.”

     After transferring to be the librarian at South Central High School, Sharon, along with her husband, Tim, began mentoring the high school-level county-wide robotics team: the Pitt Pirates. Through this program, she became the team's biggest cheerleader, attending every competition and even 3D printing lime-green earrings to represent the team colors.

     “[She loved] seeing her students grow and become better people; some students were on our first FLL team, and then we got to FRC, and they're still doing it, and we could see how much they had grown in their personal lives,” Tim said. “She liked to think that she had something to do with that, as she guided them and helped them grow towards adulthood.”

     Sharon was an educator at heart, and her widely known philosophy was that one should never stop learning. Tim hopes to continue this passion by pushing for robotics programs in every school in Pitt County.

     “I'm going to keep her memory alive by continuing that fight because that was something big for her,” Tim said. “It's not necessarily the robotics portion, but it's bringing opportunities to kids who may not have gotten it otherwise.”

     Sharon’s empathy and kindness toward everyone around her will not be forgotten; she played a key role in ensuring that every student felt accepted. Whether it was through her students running up to give her a hug on the first day of school or allowing those without a place to go during lunch to sit in the library, her compassion was felt far and wide.

     “She was a person who cared about her students in a way that I feel like not many teachers do,” Nelson said. “[She was] someone in your life that you could turn to at any moment, and she wouldn’t be the one to judge you; she’d take that action and make you feel like you were heard or you were special.”

     Sharon’s passion for reading, baking, singing and painting was evident through her time in Greenville, but most of all, her love for her students shone the brightest.

     “Everyone thought she was their secret super-supporter,” co-media coordinator Kelly Friday said. “She had a way of making you feel like you were the most important person in the world to her.”

      After years of inspiring her students and making them believe “I can,” she embodies spirit and passion and will be forever remembered for her vast impact and dedication to her students.

     “I was in awe of her; I'm not a people person, so when I see somebody who's really good at what they do, no matter what it is, I just have to stand back and admire it,” Tim said. “If somebody did her bad, you hardly ever knew it because it just rolled off her back… she put up with a lot, [and] I tried my best but I was never worthy of her.”