Tom Wham (born 1944) is a designer of board games who has also produced artwork, including that for his own games.
Career
Early life and Guidon Games
Born in Chester, Illinois, Wham worked a variety of odd jobs during his early adult life. After serving four years as a radioman in the U.S. Navy, he worked for the Guidon Games hobby shop in Maine where he got his first game, a variant on a Civil War naval miniatures campaign, published. One of Wham's books was published in the same series of "Wargaming with Miniatures" books from Guidon Games that began in 1971 with Chainmail. In 1972, Wham got a job with Don Lowry at Guidon Games, in the shipping/layout department of Campaign magazine; there, he co-authored a set of Civil War naval miniature rules, Ironclad. Afterwards he became a prison guard in his hometown, then held an office job in Denver. He also made a deal with Tim Kask, editor of The Dragon, to do a game in the centerfold, called Snit Smashing; this led to other games in Dragon, including The Awful Green Things from Outer Space.