Gordon Marshall Ware

August 12, 1941 – December 08, 2024

Gordon Marshall Ware, 83, died, Dec. 8, 2024, at home with his wife by his side.

You might remember Gordon as the first person to walk up to the microphone to ask the really insightful question after an art or science lecture. Or the person deeply engaged in conversation with the featured artist at a local gallery. Or the person dancing at a blues club or sitting in a restaurant, pen in-hand, drawing on paper napkins.

Gordon was born in Attleboro, Massachusetts, Aug. 12, 1941, to George Raymond and Marjorie Ware. He grew up in North Attleboro, Massachusetts, where he played ice hockey on frozen ponds and earned the physics award for his high-school science-fair project.

He attended Worcester Polytechnic Institute, majoring in physics and minoring in mathematics and chemistry. In Boston, Gordon worked at MIT and for a scientific appliance manufacturer, studied drawing and painting at Boston Museum of Fine Arts, and danced with the Boston Dance Circle. He drove to California in 1965 in an old hearse, first living in San Francisco and then San Jose, where he supervised and trained groups of people in satellite flight test support at Lockheed Missiles and Space Company.

In 1969, Gordon moved north to Oregon and worked at a manufacturing firm while studying urban design, mathematics and art at Portland State University.

To meld his twin passions of physics and art, he earned a degree in architecture at the University of Oregon in 1976. He then joined architectural firms in Portland and Salem, working on residential and commercial facilities, including schools, universities, hospitals, airports, multi-family residences and industrial and retail facilities, ranging from one to 25 stories.

Along the way, he taught solar collection and weatherization, chaired the City of Salem’s Energy Advisory Committee, and served as president of Woodstock Neighborhood Association and vice-chair of Southeast Uplift.

Gordon married Jeanette (Jeanie) Kempe-Ware, Aug. 21, 1982. They were married 42 years.

Gordon loved science, history and nature; walking and hiking; painting and life-drawing; dancing; hearing live music, especially the blues; reading; making up math problems and working all night to solve them; watching PBS’s NOVA and basketball and hockey games; and helping people in any way he could. He was a long-time member of Unitarian Universalist congregations in Eugene, Salem and Portland.

Gordon was also a gifted storyteller, who could weave magical stories out of something as simple as two rocks in a dry riverbed.

He had a warm, loving personality, a good sense of humor, a beautiful smile and a ready laugh. During the last years of his life, he lost his words. But the last words he could speak were “I love you.” And those were the words he used to greet everyone he met with a warm hug on his daily walks.

Gordon is pre-deceased by his parents. He is survived by his wife, Jeanette Kempe-Ware; his sister, Beverly Shannon Jameson (Rick); his brother, Robert Dale Ware (Jan); his step-daughter, Rebecka Rivers (Todd); and step-grandson, Clifford Rivers.

A Celebration of Life will be Sunday, Feb. 23, 2 p.m., at First Unitarian Church, 1011 SW 12th, Portland. To honor Gordon’s memory, please consider donating to Portland Art Museum, a place that gave Gordon many hours of delight, or to the Alzheimer’s Association.