Lawrence Jacob Ward ’46 died on March 4, 2005, in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Born on November 12, 1924, in Lewiston, he prepared for college at Lewiston High School and became a member of Zeta Psi Fraternity at Bowdoin, which he entered in 1942. During World War II, he served in the U.S. Army Air Forces from 1943 to 1945, attaining the rank of technical sergeant with a combat flying unit and earning the Air Medal with four oak leaf clusters. He flew on 40 missions in the South Pacific. He returned to the College in 1946 and, following his graduation in 1948, spent a summer studying at the Sorbonne in Paris, France, receiving a certificate in French civilization. He became general manager of Ward Bros., Inc. in Lewiston, started by his father and uncle in 1929 as a women’s clothing store, and served as the firm’s chief executive officer and president for many years. In 1988, he became a partner in Ward Associates, consulting to retailing and marketing firms. He served as president of Maine Merchants Associates and was elected to the board of directors of the National Retail Merchants Association, representing Maine. He was a member of the Maine Small Business Advisory Board, a member of the steering committee of Lewiston Downtown Merchants, and vice president of Lewiston Tomorrow, a private agency concerned with the optimum development of downtown Lewiston. He taught a course in marketing at Bliss Business College in Lewiston, and in retirement taught at the Harvard University’s Institute for Learning in Retirement, leading a course in “The History of Jazz.” Surviving are his wife, Ann Brodell Ward, whom he married in 1951; a daughter, Sandra W. Simon; two sons, Peter M. Ward ’79 of Lewiston and Michael Ward; a sister, Susan Swartz of Toronto, Canada; and three grandchildren.