Weston Ware

Weston Wakefield Ware, 88, of DFW, went to be with his Lord on April 6, 2021 at a local nursing home in Fort Worth.
A Celebration of Life will be held online at 6 pm CST on Tuesday, April 20th, hosted by Cliff Temple Baptist Church with Dr. Larry Williams officiating.  To attend the service please register at clifftemple.org/memorial .

Memorials: In lieu of flowers, memorials or donations may be made to the T.B. Maston Foundation on Ethics ( https://tbmaston.org/ ) or Stop Predatory Gambling ( stoppredatorygambling.org ).

Weston was born on January 11, 1933 to J.W. and Myrtle Barber Ware in Dallas, Texas, the second of four sons.  The Ware family moved a number of times and ultimately settled in the Rio Grande Valley where Weston ran track, played basketball and first learned to speak Spanish.

Weston graduated from Baylor University and Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, where he earned the Bachelor of Divinity, Doctor of Theology in Social Ethics, and eventually, Doctor of Philosophy degrees.

He married Charlotte Eddings in 1957 and they had three children, one of whom died in infancy.

He served as a summer missionary in Brazil when he was 17, hitchhiking to Florida for the flight to Rio, where he added to his language skills, becoming conversant in Portuguese.  After seminary he served the church in various capacities, as a Baptist pastor in Texas, directing Baptist student services in Hawaii for two years, and other work back in Texas.  From 1966-1982 he worked for the federal government, holding director positions with federal volunteer agencies including the Peace Corps in Panama, and VISTA and ACTION agencies in Puerto Rico, New York, and Texas.  After leaving federal service, he returned to the Texas Baptist Christian Life Commission as Director for Citizenship and Public Policy, where he often testified before the Texas Legislature and became a national leader in the fight against predatory gambling. He ultimately retired in 1999.   He also served as the chairman of the National Coalition Against Legalized Gambling (now Stop Predatory Gambling) and as chairman of the T.B. Maston Foundation.

In his younger years he loved to sail, including a memorable trip with his son sailing from Puerto Rico to the Virgin Islands. In later years he worked on restoring Cadillacs and LaSalles from the late 1930s.  In his eighties, Weston tackled another language, adding French to English, Spanish and Portuguese.   He had always worked hard to develop and maintain his fluency in Spanish - often teaching classes as well as preaching in Spanish - and became just as serious in his work with French. He took French lessons online into his 88th year, and he loved to read French mysteries.

At every stage of life Weston invested time and energy in his church, church leadership, and the people around him, creating new friendships that were precious to him while somehow also sustaining and enjoying lifelong connections.  Many ministers counted him as a friend and confidante.

He was preceded in death by Charlotte Eddings Ware, his bride of 62 years; their infant daughter, Caroline; and his three brothers, Browning, Broadman and Conwell.

Weston is survived by his children, Cameron Ware (wife, Wendy) and Keren Cummins; and grandchildren, Austin, Carson, Kaelyn, Rob, and Danny.