About Delegate Lee Ware
Robert L. (Lee) Ware, Jr. has represented us in the Virginia House of Delegates since 1998. Accordingly, he is the fourth ranking member of the chamber, and he is widely regarded as an authentic statesman devoted to the common good of the Commonwealth who is amongst the most influential legislators at the Capital.
A Republican, Delegate Ware is a member of the House committees on Finance and Agriculture, Chesapeake, & Natural Resources. He is a former chairman of both committees. Delegate Ware serves by appointment of the Speaker on several commissions, including:
Delegate Ware has previously served on virtually all of the major commissions created by the legislature. Early life and education Lee Ware was born on August 20, 1952, in Fitchburg, Massachusetts, the oldest of three children of Robert Lee Ware, Sr. and Nance Caroline (Brooks) Ware. He is of English and Finnish ancestry. Among his many notable forebears is Henry Ware, Sr., his great-great-great-great grandfather, a founder of Harvard Divinity School and twice acting president of Harvard University (then Harvard College), the alma mater of many Wares across the centuries since its founding in 1636. His great-great grandfather was Colonel Francis Lowell Lee of the 44th Massachusetts Regiment. The family’s connections include many Cabots, and other families (including Nobel Laureat T.S. Eliot) long established in Massachusetts, and Delegate Ware’s roots also strike deep in Virginia. After graduating from Lunenburg High School in 1970, he double majored in History and Literature at Wheaton College, Wheaton, Illinois, and has undertaken graduate studies in those subjects in Harvard College, Asbury Seminary, Northeastern University, Longwood College, and Virginia Commonwealth University. Professional Career Lee served one year as Assistant Headmaster of Lexington Christian Academy, Lexington, MA. To deepen his grasp of life as it is lived, to complement his pursuit of the life of the mind, in 1980 he began a career in journalism with The Monadnock Ledger in Peterborough, New Hampshire. Wanting to live in Virginia to deepen his participation in a traditional rural Southern community, and to reinvigorate ancient familial ties, Delegate Ware relocated to Powhatan Court House in 1981 was named editor of The Powhatan Gazette. In 1984 he returned to his first vocation in education as a teacher of History and Government in Powhatan High School. Following his reception into the Catholic Church he joined the faculty of Blessed Sacrament Huguenot Academy and taught History and Government there until 2013. During this time, he was named an Outstanding Teacher of the Constitution by the John Marshall Foundation. He concluded his 32-year career in education in 2014 after serving one year as Academic Dean of Benedictine College Preparatory. To three generations of students, many now in their early fifties, he remains “Mr. Ware.” Political Career Mr. Ware was encouraged by numerous longtime Powhatan families and leaders, who recognized him as having made himself “right at home” in the Southside, to run for local office and, in 1987, he did so, winning election to the Powhatan Board of Supervisors representing District 4 as the first Republican candidate for county office in recent memory. He was elected to a second term in 1991. In 1995 he was the first public school teacher in modern times to be appointed, by Governor George Allen, to the State Board of Education. In 1998 Mr. Ware was encouraged to seek the Republican nomination for special election to the House of Delegates when State Senator Joe Benedetti accepted appointment to the Administration of Governor George Allen, and then-Delegate John Watkins chose to run for the resulting vacant seat in the State Senate. Mr. Ware secured the Republican nomination in three-way convention contest and won a three-way race in the special election with 65% of votes cast. In the more than two decades since, Delegate Ware has faced Democrat or Independent opposition every four years or so and has been re-elected by margins averaging 2-1. Political Principles Delegate Ware eschews ideological rigidity while adhering to principles grounded in history and experience. He believes his principal priority is to give voice to his constituents’ beliefs and to address his constituents’ needs. He also believes legislators have an obligation to serve “the good of the whole” given the Commonwealth’s vast regional differences. He deliberates bills in the legislature in a two-fold manner: first, he asks, is the proposal something government ought to do or something best undertaken by private citizens and associations?; second, noting that the Virginia Constitution requires the legislature to adopt a balanced budget, he asks, can taxpayers afford it? Delegate Ware regularly recurs to the writings of Edmund Burke, the renowned conservative legislator and philosopher, and takes guidance especially from two of Burke’s observations: “A state without the means of some change, is without the means of its own conservation.” And, “Manners are of more importance than laws. Manners are what vex or soothe, corrupt or purify, exalt or debase, barbarize or refine us, by a constant, steady, uniform, insensible operation, like that of the air we breathe.” Delegate Ware has been the recipient of numerous civic and legislator-of-the-year awards, has been hailed as “a guiding light of the General Assembly,” ”the conservative conscience of the House,” and—by a senior Democrat—as “a man of towering influence” in the House of Delegates.. As an advocate of principled and civil debate, Delegate Ware has been praised by editors of The Richmond Times-Dispatch as a legislator “prone to frequent outbursts of common sense and occasional lapses into profound civic eloquence.” Personal Life Delegate Ware and his wife, Kathy (née Nulton) met in Wilmore, Kentucky, as students, respectively, of Asbury Seminary and Asbury College. They were married in 1975, and are parents of four grown children, Karen Reid (Andrew), of Powhatan; Rob (Katy), of Sherborn, MA; Thomas (Lesley), of Andover, New Hampshire; and Jeb (Rachel) of Charlotte, North Carolina. The Wares have ten grandchildren. He is a member of St. John Neumann Catholic Church in Powhatan. |