WARE, DRUE O. D.

FORT WORTH – Drue Oliver Dodd Ware, M.D., 82, a longtime Fort Worth family practitioner, died Wednesday, Feb. 18, 1998, in Fort Worth after a yearlong illness.

Funeral: 2 p.m. Saturday at First Presbyterian Church in Fort Worth. Officiating: Dr. Clifford Williams and the Rev. Bert Honea. Burial: Oakwood Cemetery. Visitation: 5 to 7 p.m. Friday at Thompson’s Harveson & Cole Funeral Home.

Memorials: the family requests that memorials be made to The Physicians Benevolent Fund, Tarrant County Medical Society, 3855 Tulsa Way, Fort Worth, Texas 76107.

Dr. Ware was born Sept. 17, 1915, in Jermyn, Texas.

A lifelong Texan, Dr. Ware was born in Jermyn, Dr. Ware received his degrees from Baylor University and Baylor University College of Medicine. After completing his internship in 1942, he joined the Navy as a medical officer and was attached to Carlson’s Second Marine Raider Battalion, where he participated in the beachhead invasions of Bougainville, Emirau and Guam. After his discharge, he entered private practice in Bridgeport and moved to Fort Worth in 1948, where he continued until retirement in 1995. During his career, he served as chief of staff of John Peter Smith Hospital and of Harris Methodist Hospital in Fort Worth. Among the positions he held were chairman of the board of trustees of the Tarrant County and Texas medical associations, and president of the Texas Medical Foundation. At the time of his death, he was a member of the board of managers of the Tarrant County Hospital District and a trustee of the Texas Medical Foundation.

Dr. Ware received the Gold Headed Cane Award from the Tarrant County Medical Association in 1980, the Distinguished Service Award from the Texas Medical Association in 1993 and Phil Overton Award from the Texas Medical Foundation in 1995. While proud of these awards, his primary focus was always on providing the best possible care to his patients. He boasted of having delivered over 5,000 babies, some of them children and even grandchildren of women he had delivered.

Survivors: Wife, Mary Helen Neelley Ware; son, Drue Neelley Ware, M.D., of Houston; daughters, Lynne Ware Urbel and Ann Ware Farmer, both of Fort Worth; and grandson, Russell Ware Farmer of Fort Worth.

Thompson’s Harveson & Cole, 702 Eighth Ave.