Mary Stack Ware is a product of Amarillo High School who graduated from Amarillo College in 1941. She went on to attend West Texas State University and the University of Texas. She married Tol Ware in 1944, and the Ware family has since become synonymous with Amarillo National Bank and “giving” at Amarillo College, where the bank established a pair of prestigious scholarships. While at Amarillo College, Mary served as president of the student theatre group—College Players—she was on Student Council, and she was named runner-up in the Miss Amarillo College pageant. Her civic activities are and have been many, including the Art Alliance, Kid’s Inc., the Amarillo Symphony Guild, Junior League of Amarillo, and she was a founding member of the Amarillo Museum of Art and Amarillo Botanical Gardens.