Personal Reflection by Peter Freeman

I had a number of conversations with Tom in late October of 2015 when I visited him.

He talked. I listened. He spoke of his early life in Wichita and of you, his Mom and Dad and their visits to New Mexico. As I understand it, he lived with the Naumer family, and your family and the Naumers were close friends.  

Tom began his life long occupation as a potter recreating Pueblo potting techniques, paints and glazes while as a young boy, he would watch and ask questions of Pueblo Indian women potters, apparently women who worked for the Naumers. They took an interest in him too and showed him how they did pots.

At the UNM, where I met Tom upon entering as a freshman in 1952, He studied Inter-American Affairs for several years, which included a semester of study in Mexico at the Colegio de las Américas. Carlos Naumer also studied there, graduating from the Colegio I believe. Tom later changed majors and graduated from UNM with a B.A. in arts.

He worked several years at the Museum of International Folk Art, during which he travelled throughout the state to public schools, giving classes in New Mexico indigenous and folk arts and crafts. Tom knew many traditional New Mexican folk songs, Tecolote de Guardaña and Indita de Cochití for example, that he sang and taught us, his fraternity brothers. (Kappa Alpha). He also knew and sang Indian songs. 

Tom and  Carlos Naumer bought land in Glorieta where eventually Tom built his home, potting workshop and guest house out of hand formed adobe bricks. The purchase was however contested by one of the sisters of the family that sold the land to them. A protracted legal battle proved very costly and Tom’s mother, determined as she was that the land not be taken from him, helped him pay the $50,000 in legal and court costs, sending him her Social Security income and cashing in some Treasury bonds. Tom had to sell his pots and portions of the land. But his defense of the purchase prevailed. 

Tom became involved with some of the Bhuddist Tibetan refugees who fled Tibet and came to New Mexico. He said that when they decamped and moved on to California, one of the monks annointed him as a Bhoddisatva, an enlightened person who brings bhuddist thoughts and wisdom to others.

Toms wonderful ceramic creations could not be marketed next to those of Pueblo potters because they weren’t “authentic” on account of him being an Anglo. He was deeply disappointed that he was not duly recognized for his work which in my view equaled, or excelled, contemporary Pueblo ceramics.

On a personal note, for years after moving away from New Mexico I would daydream often of sitting against an adobe wall in the warm morning sun with a cup of coffee on a late Autumn day….one man’s view of Heaven. When I visited Tom on those crisp late October days in 2015 that’s exactly what we did .We sat outside in the morning sun conversing and drinking coffee.