Master Builder’s Touch Lives On in All He Left Behind
It’s been almost a month since Tres Converse ended his life in a sudden and violent moment. A month gone and still the mix of flatness and bewilderment in his friends’ voices as they try to make sense of something they know they may never understand.
“Here’s this great artist who died, who we all loved,” says one friend. “And he was an exceptional guy.”
Who was Tres Converse? And will anyone ever know what drove him to kill himself in the late afternoon of March 22?
Born George Knox Converse III, he picked up the nickname “Tres” from the Roman numerals. Eclectic, playful, driven to please, lover of the outdoors--it seemed to Converse’s friend as though he was touching all the bases as he romped through life. When the family sat around playing Trivial Pursuit, his mother-in-law would say, “Why don’t you all just quit? Tres is going to win.”
Although college-educated as a science major, Converse turned his attention to architectural design and craftsmanship, becoming a master carpenter. It was that combination of visualizing in his mind and building with his hands that made Converse so indispensable among Orange County’s high society.
His satisfied customers included some of the county’s most wealthy notables, such as William Lyon, Henry Segerstrom and David Stein.
Carl Akins, whose family-run home-building business has been in Orange County for 20 years, said Converse was involved in “dozens” of projects over the years. “We do a lot of custom homes and Tres did a lot of work for us,” Akins said. “Not only a lot of designing work but he actually built stairways and cabinets and paneled rooms and carvings. The guy is a Picasso. I never met anybody as creative as this guy. On many of the projects we did--and we’ve done a lot of high-end projects--the architect on the job couldn’t solve a design problem. Tres would be there and in a matter of hours he’d draw a solution, in perspective and in 3-D detail that was like a photograph. And every time you’d say, ‘That’s it.’ ”
Akins has some favorite Tres Converse stories. “We built a house for the Henry Segerstrom family and Tres ran that job for me,” Akins recalled. “It was a beautifully simplistic house. The house is basically to showcase some incredible art they had. They had a staircase design they just weren’t comfortable with. Tres knew that, so he did a sketch and drawing and Mr. and Mrs. Segerstrom went nuts and loved it. And it’s like the focal point of the house. You see this plaster corkscrew going up the middle of the house and it’s just awesome.”
Seldom seen without papers on which he could sketch, Converse had a brain that seemed to be percolating all the time, Akins said. “Thoughts flowed out of his mind through the end of a pencil onto a sheet of paper. He was just one very, very creative guy--an intense guy. Everything he did came from the bottom of his boots, from his soul.”
Greg Grisamore, a landscape designer who shared office space with Converse, said: “He was truly a genius in his own right. There was nothing he couldn’t do or create or figure out.”
“I admired the guy so much,” Akins said. “You just wanted to hang around him and see what you could learn.
“He did a castle for (former Orange County resident) Dave Stein in Majorca. Stein bought a medieval castle and wanted to remodel this thing and make it livable and add to it and do what you do to a castle. Tres went over there and blew away the Spanish and French craftsmen who were building things for this house. I know that for a fact,” Akins said.
“He was over there with reams of paper and just getting in and designing, and it was like, ‘Stand back, let Tres design this thing.’ It’s like Michael Jordan being on--he can’t miss,” Akins said.
On March 22, Converse was at a private home job site. His sister-in-law Judy Soderlund said it was no secret to anyone that Converse was having problems with that particular job. About 5:30 p.m., Converse walked out to his truck, which was parked off the property, got a shotgun he had brought with him from home, walked back to the front porch of the home and shot himself.
It was an act that no one saw coming. Friends and relatives say he had spoken excitedly in days before about upcoming projects. Soderlund said Converse took the gun with him but left no suicide note, suggesting he may not have known himself what he would do.
Converse was 44 and left behind his wife, Gail, and son, 11, and daughter, 8.
His friends and family are left to sort out the complexities of job pressures and whatever other factors may have led Converse to do what he did. But because he took the answers with him, his friends want to at least make sure this gifted and lovable man who drew an overflow crowd to his funeral isn’t forgotten.
You learn things about people from the stories others tell about them. I won’t pretend I’ve come to know Tres Converse just from talking to friends and family, but I like this story, told by his sister-in-law:
“My sister (Gail Converse) was always after him to draw her,” she said. “He drew houses, doors, windows, but he’d never drawn her. For months she said, ‘Draw me.’ One day he said OK. He put her over by the window by the light, tilted her head just so, got his sketch pad and started to work.”
Ever the master, Converse labored over his pad, not letting his wife move an inch as he drew. After 10 minutes or so, the man who had drawn the insides of mansions and castles handed his wife a sketch of a stick figure with a head on it.
Laughs all around.
Why the laughter ended for Converse, we’ll never know.
But I can’t help but think that while he may have cursed those who knew him by ending his life, he blessed them while living it.
Dana Parsons’ column appears Wednesday, Friday and Sunday. Readers may reach Parsons by writing to him at The Times Orange County Edition, 1375 Sunflower Ave., Costa Mesa, Calif. 92626, or calling (714) 966-7821.
