September 9, 1948 – February 19, 2023

            Andrew Malcolm Scharf was born and raised in New Jersey and attended South Mountain School.  Following graduation from MHS, he went to college in Oklahoma, Florida (where he played tennis), and then New Jersey’s Kean College (now Kean University) where he earned a degree in Art Education.  During this time, he met Dolly Kunz from Stirling, New Jersey, and in 1976, while Andy was living and teaching art in the Bahamas, he returned to New Jersey to marry her.  (Our classmate, Robert Szerlip, was best man at their wedding.)  They then made their home in Freeport, Grand Bahama Island.  In time they moved back to New Jersey but then went their separate ways.  Dolly later remarried.

            On this website, Andy said he’d “always wanted to lead an artistic life,” and he started very early.  In 1957, when he was in the third grade, he (along with later MHS classmates Paul Birnholz and Marty Herzlinger) sketched and directed the painting of a mural at South Mountain School depicting the school as it had looked when it opened in 1936.  After teaching high school art in the Bahamas for a few years, Andy continued to follow his artistic dream by building custom homes in Santa Fe, New Mexico and Austin, Texas.  When he stopped building houses in Texas, he worked as a building inspector for an engineering company.  In New Mexico, he created his famous cave house "Bedrock" and another house for his family after marrying Reba Saxon, the mother of his children.  While his two sons were still young, he and his family then moved to Texas.  He continued his career in building while still finding time to clutter up his garage with discarded materials he may or may not have used.  After 27 years of marriage and raising their sons into young men, Andy and Reba also went their separate ways.

            Andy reconnected with Dolly, and the two of them moved to Salado, Texas in 2015 where they bought a home together.  He spent the rest of his days on smaller projects using materials he would find other people had thrown out, reading, gardening, and chasing sunsets on the golf cart with Dolly by his side.  He had recently completed his final masterpiece “The Garden House.”        

            Among the things Andy’s friends and family remember most about him are that his favorite sayings included “get out” and “just act right”; he enjoyed sunrise on the beach, westerns, woodworking, art, and estate sales; he was frequently sighted in his bathrobe; and, perhaps most poignant, “he was truly a man who was unapologetically himself.”   

            His parents, Amiel Scharf and Rhoda Fruitman Scharf, predeceased Andy.  He is survived by Dorothy “Dolly” Kunz Wilson, his sons Jacob Scharf and Noah Scharf, his sister Barbara Scharf Lehrhoff, and Dolly’s three young grandchildren - Willa, Finn, and Charlie - to whom he was known as their “loving Papa.”

            A celebration of Andy’s life will be held in Salado, Texas on his birthday, September 9, 2023, 7 p.m. at Axis Winery, 1420 N Robertson Rd, Salado TX 76571.