Rev. Bob Ware

(John 3:16) “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”

               On February 17, 2025, Rev. Bob Ware of Groveland, Florida, died peacefully at his home. He is
survived by two sisters, a younger sister Pat Hill (husband Joe Hill) of Greenville, South Carolina, and his
older sister Mildred Davis of Elgin, South Carolina; he had four younger brothers, Jerry Ware and Larry
Ware (wife Kathy) of Greenville, South Carolina, Rev. Steve Ware (wife Brenda) of Orlando, Florida, and
Mark Ware (wife Kathy) of Hendersonville, North Carolina.  Rev. Ware is survived by three children, Ethan
Ware of Columbia, South Carolina, Carolista Ware of Orlando, Florida, and Karen Drummond of
Pensacola, Florida, and predeceased by Kris Ware of Mt. Dora, Florida. He is also survived by his wife of
28 years, Saminder (“Sumi”) Datta Ware and her children from a prior marriage, Seema Datta, Meena
Turner, and Sapna Datta of Orlando, Florida, and Ajai Datta of Hawaii.

Beginnings
               Bob Ware was born in Greenville, South Carolina, December 21, 1937, to Arthur and Lillian
Ware. They were a proud family and vital members of the Woodside community, where Rev. Ware
attended Parker High School, but cherished time looking after his younger brothers and sister.

Service
While Rev. Ware loved his family, he had a restless spirit. During more than one Parker High football
game he was asked to leave a little early for what he recalled as “overly aggressive play.”  He took that
spirit to new level when he turned fifteen and left Greenville by train (without telling his parents) to join the
Navy, changing the birth year on his birth certificate along the way to make it appear he was 16 years old.
When the forgery was discovered, he was sent home, but enlisted the next year shortly after his
16th  birthday with his father’s approval. He never graduated Parker High School and received a GED in the service.

From 1953 to 1962, Bob Ware was a seaman. He toured the world aboard the USS Forrestal. He worked
in supplies and the kitchen. Over the years, his sermons and tales at home were peppered with
experiences from time spent in Italia, Key West, Norfolk, Spain, England, and beyond. Bob Ware loved the Navy.

His Service in the Navy brought him close to a lot of great Christian leaders. Fellow seaman like Don
Strange and Joe Norris worked together.  D.M. Hardison of Chesapeake Virginia, was his mentor, who
challenged him to serve. Morris Wright of Key West Florida was his friend in ministry.

Pastor
Conviction came to Bob Ware during his first years in the Navy. He told anyone that would listen about
the night he read the Bible and asked Christ to be his savior. While stationed in Key West, he stopped to
listen to a street preacher named Morris Wright on Devall Street; it caught his attention. He went home to
the ship, then returned to listen a second night. Dr. Wright and Bob Ware became close friends. Dr.
Wright nurtured Bob Ware as he was called to preach a short time later.
Bob Ware was not a slave to convention. While stationed in nearby Norfolk, Bob Ware was the first pastor
of a mission church (Emmanuel Baptist Church) in Edenton, North Carolina, from 1962-1966; the
attendance grew to over two hundred in a town with less than 10,000 residents.

In 1966, the owner of a car dealership in Orlando, Florida, contacted Rev. Ware and asked if he would
come and start a church there. On December 18, 1966, Bob Gray preached the organizational sermon for
Tabernacle Baptist Church in a tent on Old Winter Garden Road to seventeen in attendance.
Bob Ware tackled the Orlando ministry as he did everything else. Soon, the attendees rented an old auto
auction on Orange Blossom Trail and crowds grew. From there, the congregation moved into an
abandoned Methodist Church. Five months after Bob Ware arrived in Orlando, he took an option on three
acres of ground that cost $72,500 and 60 years later, Tabernacle Baptist Church thrives at 6000 West Colonial Drive.

The church grew to over 5,000 in membership and spawned many ministries under Pastor Ware. The
church opened Tabernacle Christian School (K-12) in 1972; Pastor Ware hosted a daily radio show at
7:30 AM for decades; and the church added Heritage College (a Bible seminary) in 1976, which has sent
out hundreds of church workers over the years. In 1973, Tabernacle was listed as one of the one hundred
greatest churches in America in the book titled “Great Soul-Winning Churches” (Elmer L. Towns, Liberty University, 1973).

Bob Ware resigned from Tabernacle Baptist Church in February 1998, and after a short break, pastored
New Life Baptist Church, Leesburg Florida, until 2019.

Fighter
Everyone who knew Bob Ware knows nothing came easy to him, yet he fought to win every step along
the way. This fighting spirit was cultivated by boxing for the U.S. Navy. Perhaps his biggest win was
defeating the British Royal Navy Welter-weight Champion in front of a sold-out arena in Italy in 1958.  As
he told the family many times, he only wished he could remember how he did it!
The church was his ultimate venue for a fight. When a pornographic bookstore opened across the street
from the church in about 1974, Bob Ware organized daily protests with signs like “Don’t Look Ethel” until
the store closed, and the owner became a Christian. He opposed abortion when no one knew what it
was, aligning himself often with Catholic Priests in speeches to the Florida Legislature and local news and radio outlets.

He fought for his family too. He never missed a football game or baseball game in which his kids
played…as long as every child knew they could not play sports on Wednesday night, or Sundays and the
Ware kids left many of Little League venue mid-way through the second inning to follow the rule. Pastor
Ware had the high school teams play public schools to “be a witness” and even would schedule football
games back-to-back on Friday and Saturday nights just to make sure the school gained exposure.
He challenged his children to overachieve. Every Saturday morning started with cleaning toilets at the
house. No exceptions. Every child wanted to “overachieve” after that

Closure
Bob Ware tried in everything he did. While you may have been smarter than him, you never doubted Bob
Ware would not stop “until the job was done.”   And, to some degree, he never loved a person he did not
fight at least once along the way. God’s rest, to a Husband, Dad, Brother, Pastor Friend and Soul-
winner.

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