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Jim Wear
1951 - 2020
Jim Wear was born July 7, 1951 in Dundee, Illinois and died April 19, 2020 at home in Laramie with Silvya and their dog Ellie at his side. Jim was a charter lifetime member of the Wyoming Falconers’ Association.
When Jim Wear first saw the Laramie Plains as a teenager from Illinois, he knew this would be his home. He’d come out to visit his friend Dave Current, and that was just the beginning of a life well lived – rich with friends, family, animals and wide-open spaces. Jim returned to Laramie a few years later, and in the early 1970s he and Dave hosted Roger Tory Peterson of Peterson’s Field Guides – showing him the raptors of the Laramie Plains. Jim eventually earned a master’s degree in Range Management at the University of Wyoming, but his real education was studying and learning every single handicraft that caught his attention. He didn’t just learn those crafts - he mastered them.
Jack Stoddart, John Baker, Randy Shaw with Watson, and Jim Wear.
Jim and his wife Silvya founded Wear’s Harness Shop when he took an interest in crafting horse harnesses. Over the years he mastered the craft and built world class harnesses for a number of clients. I’ll never forget the night that Jim and Silvya held an open house to exhibit the shiny black patent leather six-hitch harness with custom made silver highlights he’d created – a masterful piece of work. And then the client that bought it arrived in a stretch limousine to load up the harness, and drove it back to California in style.
Richard Peley, Randy Shaw with Watson, Jim Wear, Sarag, Landra Rezabek, and John Baker
One of my favorite stories of Jim is when he got a notion to make saddlebags for Harley Davidson. He and Silvya put together a couple of prototypes; he climbed into his green 1953 GMC pickup, drove to Milwaukee, walked into the Harley offices, introduced himself, showed them the saddle bag prototypes, and walked out with a purchase order for 50 pair. Over the next several years he and Silvya cranked out saddlebags in their garage for Harley Davidson motorcycles. Eventually they’d earned enough to buy the Wooden Shoe Ranch out on the Laramie Plains – a place he had fallen in love with on that first trip to Wyoming.
Jim was a real Renaissance kind of guy; he read extensively and could talk with authority on any number of subjects such as archeology, past lives regressions, UFOs, English horses and dressage, Norwegian Elkhounds, Japanese arts and crafts (including his skill at sushi), horsehair braiding, and bread baking. And, of course, he created beautiful silver jewelry and baked great Christmas cookies.
I got to know Jim at the organizational meeting of the Wyoming Falconers’ Association that was held at Gordon Crawford’s house where Jim showed up with Warren Higby. From that point on, Jim and I shared many adventures – hawking and otherwise. We ran hundreds of miles over the Laramie Plains flushing ducks and calling down our birds.
Jim supported and subsidized all of my falconry endeavors for over 40 years. He was generous to a fault with his skill, knowledge and materials. When I needed leather for jesses or bewits, he was there, and I sewed more than one hawking bag on his heavy-duty sewing machine. I never would have been able to accomplish the things I have in falconry without his contributions and support. Jim was always ready with his advice and suggestions – even if I hadn’t asked for them. He had a strong personality that we will all miss for the rest of our lives. It was a pleasure to know someone with his intensity, and it’s an honor to call Jim and Silvya my friends.
Entry written by Randy Shaw
