Born in Chester, Illinois,[citation needed] Wham worked a variety of odd jobs during his early adult life.
[3]: 6 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.
[4] Wham began doing some creative work for the company, contributing a handful of illustrations for the original AD&D Monster Manual, including the creature called the beholder.
[2] Other work included co-editing (with Timothy Jones, Mike Carr, and Brian Blume) the first edition of Gamma World.
Notable games published this way include: After TSR, Wham collaborated on books with Rose Estes, and did his own novelette in Christopher Stasheff's The Exotic Enchanter.