Donald L. Ward

Donald L. Ward was born on April 22, 1933 to John and Ellen Ward. 

He grew up on Lawrence Street in East Oak Lane in Philadelphia. He had 3 older sisters, Ellen, Dot and Lucy. Lawrence Street was where he met some of his lifelong friends, Don, Bud, Jean and his future wife, Judy. He graduated from Olney High School in 1951.

On June 26,1953 he was drafted into the Army.  He was sent to basic training in Indiana.  He returned home briefly and was married to Judy on June 26,1954. Don was sent to Fort Carson, in Colorado Springs, Colorado and Judy moved with him.  Don was sent to alpine training and was going to be deployed to Korea, once his training was complete.  As he always said, "the Korean War ended because they knew he was coming.”

He and Judy returned to Philadelphia and eventually moved to Cheltenham, PA. Don had various jobs in the years to follow; he was a bricklayer,  worked at Rohm Haas, a house painter, a volunteer Elkins Park firefighter, owned a grocery store with his father in law, “Harry and Don’s Market” in Cheltenham and finally became a restaurant manager at Joseph’s pizza, where he retired in 1995.

 Judy and Don lived 25 glorious years on the bay in Sea Isle City, New Jersey, right below their life long friends, Jean and Rich. So many wonderful family memories were made in Sea Isle with them, swimming in the bay, going to the beach, fishing on”Little Dude,” 4 o'clock happy hour and dinners at OffShore Cafe.

In 2022, Judy and Don moved to Downingtown to be closer to family.  Don always kept himself busy, between building model airplanes, reading World War II books, doing puzzles, paint by numbers and his Wednesday night oysters with the family at Brickside.

Don was mostly known for his kind, friendly personality and loved to tell a joke just to make people smile. Judy passed away 4 months prior to Don. They were happily married for 69 years. They are together again with their son Mitch, granddaughter Kait and their many friends in heaven. Judy and Don had 4 children, Mitch (Helen), Mike (Lisa), LuAnn, and Chris (Jenn).  He was "Poppop" to 11 grandchildren, Bryan, Kait, Chris, Jayme, Brittany, Jon, Matt, Jess, Nolan, Aubrey, and Kinsley, and 6 great-grandchildren, Riley, Chris, Jake, Elin, Easton and Griffin. His 7th great-granddaughter, Emmy, is expected to arrive in February. 

A celebration of life will be held on Friday, January 5th from 2pm-7pm at his son’s house (8 Lafayette Circle, Downingtown, PA). All family and friends are welcome to attend.