You can write to me by email at:
maringer@arkansas.net
or by postal mail at:
Tom Maringer
2692 Powell Street
Springdale, AR 72764
I've done lots of different things. I am a family man, a writer,
craftsman, geologist, and an educator. In my life as craftsman I make fantasy
coins in a workshop behind the house, as well as knives
and swords, buttons for costumers and cabinet knobs for interior designers
and cabinetmakers. In my work as an educator I have taiught nature
studies to fifth graders at the Ozark
Natural Science Center. as well as chemistry labs and geography classes
at the university level while a graduate student on a teaching assistantship
through the Dept. of Geosciences
at the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville.
My Masters work was done under Dr. John Dixon here in the (then) Department
of Geography between 1994 and 1996 with thesis work in Physical Geography,
sub-field of geomorphology... specifically my thesis work was geared towards
identifying the controlling factors on cavernous weathering in the sandstones
of the Boston Mountains of NW Arkansas. After receiving my M.A. degree
I spent two years working for the Benton
County 9-1-1 Administration as a cartographer.
My baccalaureate work was done at Michigan
Technological University on the Keweenaw Peninsula of Michigan's
Upper Peninsula. I received a B.S in Geology there in 1976. I did a
lot of cross-country skiing there, and met my life-partner Peggy there
as well. While doing my geology undergraduate work I was active in rockhounding
and exploring abandoned mines. I lived for three years right near the Quincy
Mine and spent many days there searching for mineral specimens... especially
datolite.
At one time I was quite enthusiastic about rock-climbing and spelunking.
Such activities have faded from prominence in later years, but I still
enjoy getting out to the hard-to-find places, getting underground and hanging
about on ropes from time to time.
After my MA work was finished in 1996, but before
I had found the position with Benton County, I spent most of my time writing
a science-fiction/adventure novel centered around the adventures of a group
of graduate students and Yooper locals in U.P. Michigan in the year 2017.
It's entitled A SUPERIOR
STATE OF AFFAIRS . Click above for a link to the text, the dustjacket
blurb and first three chapters are available online. It is now available
as a paperback from the publisher, AuthorHouse, or from any major bookstore.
Peggy and I have been married since 1975 and we have
three kids, mostly grown up now. We've lived here in Springdale since 1977.
The late 70s were a bad time for hard-rock geology, there was virtually
no work except in the oil-fields, which I found uninteresting. We moved
to Arkansas to pursue what had been a hobby... the making of custom knives
and swords. I worked at A.G. Russell's
in Springdale until 1979 when I formed Maringer
Custom Cutlery. I pursued that trade for nearly twenty years, gaining
quite a good reputation and traveling to knife shows all over the U.S.
and Europe. In 1994 something changed... I learned that someone had actually
been killed with one of my knives... and I walked out of the shop and came
down here to the University of Arkansas to pick up my long-sidelined academic
career. Fortunately I kept my equipment, and when I later became interested
in making coins, there was little difficulty in picking up the techniques
and pursuing them.
Due to the surge in metals prices starting about
2005 interest in hard-rock exploration has increased greatly, and in 2007
I took a position with a minerals exploration company. I am now off doing
fieldwork about three weeks per month, seeking to define and evaluate mineral
deposits across a broad geographical area.
My wife Peggy is the main force behind our farming
operation called Giraffe Gardens,
which occupies most of our five acres and much of her time. We grow vegetables,
root crops, and bamboo for our own use and for direct sale through the
Fayetteville
Farmer's Market.
contact: maringer@arkansas.net