Beautiful hilltop meadow held close by
the Ward family, Max Ward's ashes were
spread across the beautiful mountain
By Bob Weaver
2020 - A number of years ago I embarked on a project to write stories about the achievements of Calhoun men and women who sprung from these humble hills. My effort seemed to get little feedback, although over the years we have written many stories about those country boys and girls.
Driving around today I thought of Max and Rex Ward, one with a PhD in botany and the other "a farming whiz."
As a kid in the 1940s, straight across the valley was one of the Ward farms, often seeing Rex bustle around the hilltops putting up hay or herding cattle.
It was here I witnessed the skills of frog giggin' in the Ward pond.
These two men, in many ways not recorded, contributed to a better world.
REMEMBERING: DR. MAX WARD 1914-1999 - Pine Creek Boy Does Good, Inspired Calhoun Students (1999)
Calhoun native Dr. Max Ward was given the Glenville
State College 2001 Posthumous Award for Achievement
Max Ward sprung from the Pine
Creek and Hur area of Calhoun and was a school teacher and taught at Calhoun County High School.
The award was presented to his daughters, Marjorie Ward Mahler
and Barbara Ward Grubb, honoring their father's many contributions to
Glenville State College during his distinguished career.
One of the Calhoun man's major contributions was to inspire and teach Calhoun students throughout his career, many who went on to significant accomplishments in education and science.
Ward interviewed Eleanor
Roosevelt during a visit to the GSC campus and reported on the arrival of direct
airmail service to Glenville in the late 1930's.
He earned an MA and PHD in botany at Harvard University, spending two
years there as an associate professor.
After his graduate work, he became
chairman of the Glenville State science and math department, a position he
retained until 1969.
He was an active member of the WV Academy of Science and the American Bryological Society. He is best known for his teaching of botanical classes and the dozen or so scientific articles on bryology.
Ward's received a research grant from the National Science Foundation,
after which he presented his findings to the Linnean Society of London and
at the Sorbonne in Paris.
After leaving GSC he was guest professor at two
Ohio universities, after which he re-joined the National Science Foundation
as program manager for student originated studies.
After retiring from NSF, Ward did volunteer work for the Robert Kidd Library
and was a loyal supporter of the GSC women's basketball team.
After his death, his ashes were returned to Calhoun to be dusted across the
hills of his youth near Hur.
See  THIS OLE HOUSE - Ward Boys Lived In Stately Pine Creek House
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