Tom in his workshop, 2012
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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 between 1994 and 1996 with thesis work in Physical Geography, sub-field of geomorphology… specifically 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, 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, all grown up now. We’ve lived here in Springdale since 1977. 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 I decided to pick up my long-sidelined academic career. Fortunately I kept all my workshop 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 increased greatly, and in 2007 I took a part-time position with a minerals exploration company and spent a few years doing seasonal fieldwork, seeking to define and evaluate mineral deposits across a broad geographical area of the Western US and North Africa. Not much shop work got done during that period, but as of fall 2011 the workshop has come back into operation full-time, to make custom fantasy coin releases for Blue Waters Mint, handmade custom clothing buttons, and licensed fantasy coining for George R.R. Martin’s Song of Ice and Fire series, (later made into an HBO series using the title of the first book “A GAME OF THRONES“).
You can write to me by email at:
maringer@arkansas.net