DAVID M. WARD

WARD, DAVID M. W6BC July 17, 1914 to Nov. 10, 2010 David Murray Ward passed away in his home in La Jolla, California, of natural causes at the age of 96 on November 10th and has now joined his beloved wife of 60 years, Helen, who passed away in January 1998. Dave was born in Vancouver, BC, Canada, the only child of Rose Jane Murray and David H. Ward. He was a year old when his parents moved to Seattle, where he grew up and graduated from Garfield H.S. in 1932. He attended the Univ. of Washington, earning a B.S. in electrical engineering in 1937. An early achievement for which he was very proud was earning his amateur (ham) radio license at age 16. He built his own station and through the air waves made life-long friends, not only in the Seattle area but throughout the world, including Hawaii, Europe and Australia. He married his high-school sweetheart, Helen Louise Stare, on October 23, 1937, in Seattle. During college summer breaks from 1934 to 1937, he was a commercial radio operator and engineer for the Alaska Steamship Co., traveling the Inside Passage numerous times between Seattle and Alaska. From 1937 to 1942, he was an engineer with Boeing Airplane Co. in Seattle. In 1942, he was appointed to the staff of the radiation laboratory at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology near Boston working in research and development of airborne radar and beacon transponders for military applications during World War II. In 1943, he left Boeing for Raytheon Mfg. Co. in Seattle and was in charge of field engineering on the West Coast and Pacific Ocean areas. In 1947, he opened his own business, Ward Associates, in Seattle, and in 1952, he and Helen moved to the San Diego area where he re-established his business designing and building electro-mechanical devices, including underwater television units for the Navy in the early 1960s, instrumentation to monitor blood flow during kidney dialysis, and a water-flow mechanism for commercial fire protection systems. After retiring in the mid 1980s, he and Helen enjoyed traveling to Europe and Australia to visit ham radio friends and do lots of sight-seeing and taking photos, as photography was a life-long hobby. Other travel included Alaska and across the U.S. and Canada several times with their travel trailer to visit family and friends along the way. Although Dave lived most of his life in the United States, he maintained dual citizenship with Canada and visited cousins in British Columbia and Alberta as often as possible. Dave is survived by his cousins in Canada, extended family in the San Diego, Seattle and Tucson areas, as well as many friends, especially those with whom he shared the air waves for so many years via weekly ham radio schedules. He will be greatly missed by all. A memorial service will be held on Thursday, November 18th, at 3:30 p.m., Pacific Beach Mortuary and Chapel, 4710 Cass St., San Diego, CA 92109. Burial will be in Seattle at Evergreen-Washelli Cemetery next to his beloved wife Helen.