Evergreen’s Tom Ware leaves behind a lasting art legacy

naissance man.

While most of Evergreen would know Tom as a sculptor and artist, he also was a geologist, a veteran, a surface.

Tom died Sept. 10, 2022, at his Evergreen home at the age of 94. He lost his wife of 57 years, Maryanna

(“Monk”), in 2008, and leaves behind daughters Laura and Cate, four grandchildren and a great-grandson.

He was a man of many interests and abilities, his family and friends said. Tom and Monk made wine, beer and pickles and loved to make green chile. Tom was an avid y sherman, played softball and baseball, and was an amateur genealogist. Tom was an opera fan, loved to tell stories and to joke, was curious about almost everything, was well-read, would eat anything except broccoli, and loved to sail. He was a lovable curmudgeon with a bone-crushing handshake who liked anchovies on pizza. He also knew almost everything about Colorado’s wild owers and mushrooms.

“Anything he believed in, he did with a lot of gusto,” daughter Laura said.

Some history omas Ware III was born in Kansas City, Missouri, along with brothers Dick and Harry, and attended the Kansas City Art Institute, where his love of art began and he became known for his cartoon drawings. He attended the University of Missouri in Columbia, earning a master’s degree in geology. He lived in the Kappa Sigma fraternity house; a fraternity brother was Mort Walker, known for creating the comic strip Beetle Bailey.

Tom worked as a roughneck in the oil elds in Oklahoma, Wyoming and Colorado, and later became a consulting geologist in Denver, working to discover oil that included map-making endeavors, a successful career for about 35 years.

Tom and his family moved to Evergreen in 1961 and immediately got involved in the community.

Artful legacy

“He was really the leading arts personality in Evergreen for many, many years,” said Steve Sumner, a past executive director of Center for the Arts Evergreen. “He was the motivation for the beginning of the arts center and also gathering a lot of the sculpture that you saw on the arts center property.”

Tom worked to secure two Center for the Arts Evergreen gallery spaces: the rst next to the Buchanan Park Rec Center and its current location in the former Bergen Park Church.

He was the inspiration for Art for the Mountain Community, now known as Sculpture Evergreen, and he also has three sculptures as part of Sculpture Evergreen’s permanent collection: “Planting Evergreen” at the library, “Kelle III” at the Evergreen Lake House and “Russ Colburn and Dog” in Bergen Park.

In 1979, Tom built a studio at his home open to sculptors and sketch artists who found their way to its inner circle known as the Warehouse Gang. ey met weekly until the pandemic to sculpt together, using live models, to enhance their skills and learn from the master.

In his earlier days in Evergreen, Tom created works of art that led to being an invited participant in the Denver Own Your Own Show at the Denver Art Museum.

“He was extremely creative, especially in his later years,” said Christine Go , who grew up with daughters Laura and Cate. “I can remember him telling me he always was about his art. But he was a geologist. I asked why he didn’t do art before, and he said, ‘Because I have a family, and I had to choose a career that I could support my family.’”

Go said he approached everything, including art, from a scienti c or academic position.

“My dad was not only an artist, but he was a true student of art,” said daughter Laura, who lived with her dad for the past 15 years in their home near Evergreen Lake. “Not only what Rodin did and how