Background
Schwarz was born and raised in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, a city with historical links to Regionalist painter Grant Wood. The son of a welder, his initial interests were in athletics, but as an undergraduate student at Iowa State Teachers College (now called the University of Northern Iowa), he developed an interest in ceramics, painting and other visual arts, and abruptly changed his major. He earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1960, and a Master of Arts in 1961. In 1960, he married Geraldine Fromm, a writer and literature teacher, with whom he raised six children. In their years together, he and his wife have traveled extensively throughout the world and have often collaborated on books and other projects.
While serving in the U.S. Navy in the early 1960s, he used his shore leaves to visit the studios of world famous potters, notably Shoji Hamada in Japan, and Bauhaus-trained Master Potter Marguerite Wildenhain at Pond Farm near Guerneville, California. He studied with Wildenhain at Pond Farm in 1964, then returned there for two additional summers, serving the third year as her teaching associate. In 1968, he also studied with ceramic artist William Daley at Haystack Mountain School of Crafts.
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