John Deardorff, Remembering B Ware

John Deardorff

Remembering Bob Ware, aka B Ware

I first met Bob at the end of third grade at Fairmount grade school.  We quickly became best friends. Bob had two brothers, Raymond and David and later three half-siblings, John, Mary and Kathryn.  Bob, Raymond and David were natural athletes.  I remember Raymond, who never went out for sports, could do giant swings on the high bar. David also ran track and cross country and moved to Monet, Missouri, after his sophomore year.  He was probably the better runner, but had other interests. (Left, John Deardorff)

I don’t remember much about junior high at Mathewson, except the friends we had and the trouble we got into. If our sons or grandsons did the things we did, jail or some institution would be in their future. I remember skinny-dipping in the nasty creek north of the university off of Hillside.  Ugh!  Bob did go out for the junior high track team, and I think he was a pole vaulter at one time. (Right, Bob Ware)

On to East High.  Our sophomore year we were sitting on the gym floor, listening to Coach Timmons asking for people to try out for the swimming team. Bob and I looked at each other and agreed to try out.   From then on, we came under the Timmons spell.  If you were a swimmer, Coach Timmons “hoped” you would also go out for the track team, which we did.  Then of course came Wichita Swim Club in the summer.   Bob was a good swimmer especially in the longer races.   We earned our tuition by teaching swimming lessons. (Below, Bob Ware practicing with East team)

Now came the fall of our junior year and as swimmers, we were expected to run cross country. It was a good season and we won the state championship.

As time went on, Bob grew and excelled as an athlete in both swimming and distance running. The three teams we were on brought home seven state championships for East High.

Bob’s athleticism carried over to snooker playing, where he took many of my quarters at the B Room at Douglas and Hillside. (At right, Coach Bob Timmons, Carl Hodges’62, and Bob Ware)

Larry Statham wrote a beautiful remembrance of East High and some comments about Bob Ware.  He told of the swim trip to Kansas City where he broke his hand on my head.  He did not tell another happening from, this trip.  This will show the ornery side and the honest side of Bob Ware.  A couple of days prior to the KC trip, we were horsing around in the locker room after swim practice.  In those days, the heating system in the locker room was a series of very hot radiators on the walls. Well, during the horsing around, Bob urinated on the radiator, causing a terrible smell in the locker room and other areas of the gym.  Coach Timmons heard and smelled this.  He gathered us together and asked what happened (he knew) and said the perpetrator would miss the highly anticipated trip.  Being honest, Bob raised his hand and told what he had done.  Again, this shows both sides of Bob.

After graduation Bob and I visited the University of Arkansas where the track coach really wanted Bob to become a Razorback.  We liked what we saw and agreed to go there. However, things changed and Bob enrolled at Wichita University.  (Left, Bob with trophy for best prep school miler in the U.S.)

Bob lasted one semester and decided college could wait but life could not.  He went to Colorado where he lived many years.   He mainly worked at Winter Park.  In the summer he helped build new ski runs and in the winter was on the ski patrol.  He became quite a fixture at Winter Park.  Twenty years later, in 1983,  I went to Winter Park to ski and look at other ski shops.  (I had just purchased The Slope ski shop in Wichita.)  In one shop I asked the young woman who was helping me if she knew Bob Ware.  She had a puzzled look on her face, then looked at me and asked in awe, “Do you mean B Ware?  Bob was a true legend at Winter Park.  Some time at WP, Bob dated the daughter of the general manager of the ski area.  After his death, I felt they should have named their hardest ski run “B Ware.”

Later in life, Bob took the summers off from Colorado and worked on sailing ships.  He told me about sailing Walter Cronkite’s ship from down south to Mr. Cronkite’s home in the Northeast.  After arriving, Bob and the crew spent a few memorable days with Mr. Cronkite.

Bob led “the life’ and made a lot of married men jealous with his skiing and sailing days. In the end, Bob met and married.  He was so happy and proud of his wife and life.

The last time I saw Bob was at the KU Relays where he stopped to visit me. He had lung cancer.  We spoke about playing golf, as he was learning how to play.  I’m sure he would have been good as he was a natural athlete.  We never got to play.

Bob’s was a life well lived, full of adventures, friends and love.

Fall 1959 East High Cross Country Team – State Champions

From left, Dave Ware ’62, Larry Bryan, Bob Ware, Charles Briscoe, Carl Hodges, Mike McKee ’61, Bob Kinzy, Eric Knorr, John Deardorff

Fall 1958 East High Cross Country Team