Artist, beloved son, brother and creative inspiration to a wide circle of friends, Ian Coward, 38, died unexpectedly on August 7, 2021, in Tulsa. Ian was that sudden, brilliant star that lights the night sky for an instant and just as quickly fades into the heavens.

Ian Daniel Rimstidt Coward was born in Bristol, Tennessee, on February 12, 1983, to Linda Rimstidt Coward and John M. Coward. He grew up in Austin, Texas, and Norman, Oklahoma, before moving with his parents to Tulsa in 1990.

In 2001, Ian graduated from Edison High School in Tulsa, followed by two weeks at the Oklahoma Arts Institute at Quartz Mountain, where he met the renowned Native American painter Fritz Scholder. Scholder liked him and invited him to attend the opening of his latest exhibition in Santa Fe, which he did. Ian was an art student at the University of Tulsa for three years before transferring to the Kansas City Art Institute, where he graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in ceramics in 2008. He also studied art during a semester abroad at the Lorenzo di Medici Institute in Florence, Italy, traveling to Venice and other Italian cities and spending his fall break in Barcelona.

Although he would be embarrassed to admit it, he was once a singer in the youth choir of All Souls Unitarian Church, traveling with the choir on trips to Seattle, Minneapolis and the United Kingdom. He was also a Boy Scout, attending summer camp in Mena, Arkansas, and camping with his troop and his father at Salt Plains State Park, the Wichita Mountains and other sites.

As a teenager, Ian could be seen riding his unicycle in Brookside wearing a horned Viking helmet. He was at home in nature, where he was known to save snakes from Peoria Avenue and return them to Crow Creek. He loved turtles, frogs, rabbits and other animals and spent time on the banks of the Arkansas River, looking for fossils and making environmental art from stacks of flat rocks.

Ian was a happy nonconformist, an independent spirit who expressed his creativity across a variety of media. He made and sold ceramic mugs, sculptures and masks at his mother's shop, Brookside Pottery, and a various art shows and exhibitions in Tulsa. He taught children's pottery classes, repaired broken ceramic objects, and created machetes for clients based on their designs. He exhibited and sold sculpture and paintings at the Mayfest Invitational, the Philbrook Festival of Trees, the Oh, Tulsa! show and other venues. He also held a variety of jobs over the years, including work as a screenprinter for Pearl Street Printing, a production assistant at Garden Deva, and a home health care aide, among other jobs.

He is survived by his parents, his sister, Rachel Coward, of Seattle, his grandmother, Janet Howze of Smyrna, Tennessee, as well as numerous aunts and uncles, cousins, and a host of artistic friends and companions. He was loved and cared for by his family and we miss him dearly. A memorial celebration of his life will be held at a later date.