Dear Bruce...Here's Your Answer
A subscriber wants to know what I've been doing all these years
“Tom, thank you for speaking out and for your substack. I agree 100-percent that the wine industry needs to get off its ass and do something about the anti-alcohol trends underway. I’m curious about your background. I can’t find much. Thank you. Bruce.”
Thank you for reaching out, Bruce, and for subscribing. There are a few places where you find more info about me and my background. There is some right here on my Substack and someone even created a Tom Wark Wikipedia page, but it’s kinda old and incomplete. However, there’s much more and this is a good opportunity to give you and readers a bit of background.
FAMILY AND EARLY LIFE
I was born and raised in Northern California by George and Alverna Wark who adopted me at birth along with my sister, Karen. I later met my birth mother, who happened to live no more than 30 minutes from the home we bought in Salem, Oregon in 2019. Growing up my family traveled a great deal. We were frequent visitors to Disneyland and my parents were busy in various community activities. My father owned a construction company. My mother was a stay-at-home mother. Dad died of colon cancer when I was 16.
EDUCATION
Got my BA in History at Humboldt State University, then an MA in U.S. History at San Francisco State University. University came late for me due to needing to work upon graduating. I sold Kirby Vacuum cleaners door-to-door, raised money for the U.S. Olympic Committee, and cooked Cheesesteaks. In college, I ran a French-American Study Abroad program to make money. I can’t say I brought anything from my cooking experience to my career in wine, but selling Kirby door-to-door absolutely helped me develop important sales and interpersonal talents that helped me in my career.
PERSONAL LIFE
Kathy is my third wife and by far the best person in the world I’ve ever known. She taught me how to be a husband. Our boy, Henry, is nine. He taught me why I’m here (on earth) and plays a mean striker. If I’m not working, I’m reading, hanging with the family, golfing, gardening, dreaming of being a Major League Baseball General Manager, or cooking.
POLITICS
I used to be a liberal Democrat. I supported Mondale, Jesse Jackson, Joe Biden, Clinton, Gore, Obama, and Clinton. I even managed some Student Council candidates in college. After college, I thought I’d get into politics as a career. My contacts got me a breakfast meeting with CA Senator Barbara Boxer and her campaign manager. They talked me out of it. Today I’m a Centrist/Moderate based entirely on the way the political parties have evolved, not how I have evolved politically.
WRITING
I started writing a wine blog in 2004. I was among the first wine bloggers and even back then focused almost entirely on the politics, business and legal aspects of the wine industry. My audience has always been smaller than it could be based on the size of the audience interested in these things. But that’s how I like it. I tend to be strident and unforgiving in my assessments. I’m nicer in person than I am in writing. Over the years I’ve written upwards of 4,000 posts if you combine my FERMENTATION Blog, this Substack, and other articles I’ve written for other publications. Writing and thinking about writing and the wine industry occupies a large part of my daily thinking.