Obituary: Robert David Ward (Bob) – Anthem, Arizona
Robert David Ward (Bob), 82, of Anthem, Arizona, passed away peacefully on Saturday, September 24, 2022. Funeral services will be held on Sunday, October 23, 2022, in the Shackelford Chapel in Bolivar. Visitation is one hour prior to the service with burial to follow in Walnut Grove Cemetery.
Bob was born on July 30, 1940, in Pasadena, Clifornia to Theodore Webster Ward and Sarah H. Ward. He is survived by his loving wife, Martha Frances Ward, his son, Daniel Thomas Ward, his sister Kathleen Louise Winer and family, his sister Mary Hense, Brother-in-Law Thomas Holland McKinnie and family, and a host of extended family members.
Bob graduated from John Muir High School in Pasadena, California in 1958. In 1965, he graduated from Cal State Los Angeles with a BA in International Relations. In 1970 and 1972, Bob received National Science
Foundation grants for Science Teacher Studies at Baylor University and Michigan State University. In 1975, he received his MS in Entomology from Michigan State University. Bob then continued his entomology research, working towards a PhD. In 1976, he was accepted into a Pre-Doctoral Fellowship, Evolutionary and Systematic Biology, with the Smithsonian Institution in Washington D.C. In 1989, he became a research associate at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and in 1993, he
was accepted for PhD Entomology Degree Study at the University of Pretoria, South Africa.
Bob started his career journey by joining the Navy in 1963, and in the Summer of that year he met Martha Frances McKinnie at a Navy sponsored dance in Memphis, Tennessee. Soon after they were married on March 27, 1964, in Pasadena, California. Together they raised two sons, Robert David Ward II (deceased), and Daniel Thomas Ward. Bob was a high school teacher in Hardeman County, Tennessee from 1968 to 1972 while in Navy Reserves. He served close to 25 years in the Navy from 1963 to 1987. After nine years in Ready Reserve USNR-R, and an honorable discharge in 1972, he received a direct commission to Lieutenant JG,
and served as an intelligence officer for the next six years. He then decided to go back into active duty with the Navy in 1978. He was stationed at the Pentagon and served three years as a POW/MIA Affairs Officer, working cases of Navy personnel missing or imprisoned during the Vietnam War. In April of 1981, he was promoted to Lieutenant Commander and served as a Defense Intelligence Officer-Targets for three years. In his last assignment, he served for three years as the Operations Team Intelligence Support Officer at the Alternate National Military Command Center (ANMCC), Department of Defense, Joint Chiefs of Staff. He received an honorable discharge November 1, 1987.
After his distinguished military career, Bob built on his vast intelligence experience to work as a contractor for the U.S. Embassy. He spent the next 12 years working in United States Embassies in several countries in Europe, Asia, Middle East, Africa, and South America. Throughout his career in the Navy and the U.S. Embassy, Bob continued his entomology studies and research, collecting insect specimens from numerous countries, publishing multiple scientific research papers, and donating over 200,000 insect specimens to the Carnegie Museum.
He was a brilliant and kind man that took an interest in everything and everyone he met. As a family man, he was a caring and loving husband and father, as a patriot he helped make this country a stronger and safer place, and as a scientist, he left a legacy of discovery and insight for future generations of
scientist to build upon.
Courtesy of Shackelford Funeral Directors, Bolivar, Tennessee.
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