Jim Wark, a consistent presence on the local music scene, performed at the Billy Ray Hatley memorial concert at The National in 2013. (Photo by Joe Sokohl)
After a dreary, rainy February evening and a rollicking 25th-anniversary event at the Cary Street Café — where Jim Wark often performed — blustery gusts overcame the clouds, and the melancholy intelligence began to circulate.
“Gentleman” Jim Wark, a musician, educator, organizer and supporter, died Friday morning from pancreatic cancer. He was 61.
Musician, promoter and broadcaster Joe Sokohl summed up what many are feeling about the news: “Absolutely devastating.” He describes Wark as a member of “Richmond rock 'n' roll royalty.”
“He was one of the finest players and one of the finest people I’ve ever had the pleasure to know,” Sokohl adds. “Plus, he was one of the funniest guys in show business.”
Along the way, he played for Chrome Daddy Disco, Lil Ronnie and the Bluebeats, and the Janet Martin Band, and he was active with the annual Rock ’n’ Roll Jubilee at The Cultural Arts Center at Glen Allen.
He was also actively involved with the Richmond Folk Festival and was the CEO of Virginia Voice, which provides news and information for the visually impaired. At a time later in life when most wouldn’t have thought about the option, he earned a teacher certification and taught third grade at Blackwell Elementary School. Before that gig, he’d sold media advertising and was the publisher for Style Weekly. To a former colleague, he jokingly described himself as, “Ad man by day, madman by night.”
Charles Bowles worked alongside Wark at the Richmond Times-Dispatch in, as Wark described it, “The Discount Ad Barn.”
“We had genuine affection for each other,” Bowles recalls. “This came from our stupid senses of humor, music, golf and ad sales. We’d also eat huge lunches that caused our colleagues to fear we’d pop. But that didn’t stop us from our trips to the Robin Inn.”
Bowles was Wark’s “boss,” though he rarely took any direction. Once, the two sat down at lunch with a grumpy client to inform him of a forthcoming rate increase. Wark didn’t go with the gentle method, says Bowles, but stated in a blunt manner, "Joel, you’re a good customer, but not my only customer. You’re getting a rate increase."
“I literally dropped my fork,” Bowles says, laughing. “[The client] thought he could bully us around, but Jim wasn’t having it.”
Joel retained their business.
Once, Bowles and another colleague went golfing with Wark, who, during the course of the game, hit a hole in one. “Jim jumped up and down and hugged me. He was so pleased.” A few days later, Wark distributed towels embroidered with the legend, “I Saw Jim Wark Hit a Hole in One.”
Wark enjoyed sales, but he took a chance and briefly left the Times-Dispatch for the startup 64 magazine, a short-lived arts and culture publication. Wark wanted to return to his former job and the department chief agreed, but with a condition.
“Jim had to come as Santa Claus to the staff Christmas party. And he did,” Bowles says with a big laugh. “And I’ll tell you, I feel sorry for the next person who got that Santa suit, because Jim could sweat. They would’ve needed four cans of Febreze to clean that up.”
Besides music and merriment, there was marriage.
“Most of all, he loved being married to Mary,” Bowles says. “He called her 'Skull' to me because he thought she needed a big head to carry around an enormous brain. She’s that smart, and Jim loved her.”
Musician Janet Martin can’t quite remember how they met, but Wark became a founding member of the Janet Martin Band. “We had nicknames for each other all the time. Jim was 'The Senator,' and it’s kind of embarrassing, but he’d call me the Diva From Geneva."
On Saturday afternoon, the denizens of Cary Street Café will gather to give the place a group hug as the ownership and venue transition into a new venture. The Rock & Roll Jubilee Sweetheart Soiree, at which Wark was scheduled to play interpretations of classic rock alongside longtime collaborators, will go on Feb. 14-16.
In the coming weeks and months, there’ll be other dates and stages where he would’ve been — should’ve been — expected to perform, but Mr. Wark has left the building.
