ANN BARON WARD
1929 – 2023
Ann Baron Ward, a former Head Start director in Maine, died Oct. 11 at the age of 94 after a long healthy accomplished life and a short bout with cancer. The Cambridge, Mass., resident had spent her last six days at a hospice facility.
Her husband of 53 years, Lawrence J. Ward, of Lewiston and Cambridge, died in 2005.
Ann was born in Brooklyn, N.Y., on March 4, 1929. Her father Alexander taught science at Franklin K. Laine High School in Brooklyn and her mother, Frances, was a stenographer.
Ann had a happy childhood, living in a brownstone walk-up flat in Brooklyn with her parents, only sibling Lawrence and her favorite uncle, Joseph Baron.
She graduated from Radcliffe College (which was the women’s component of Harvard University), Class of 1949. Afterward, she worked as a reporter for the Great Neck News (in Long Island) during which time she interviewed personalities passing through town such as Barbara Hale from the TV show, “Perry Mason.”
In 1951, Ann met Lawrence Ward at Tanglewood. They married in November of that year. and their marriage lasted until 2005, the year Lawrence died. Lawrence operated Ward Brothers, a specialty women’s clothing store in downtown Lewiston founded in 1929 and run by his father and an uncle. Lawrence and his cousin, David Merson, ran the store until it was sold in 1987.
In the 1960s Ann was a co-founder and first director of the Androscoggin Head Start and Child Care federal program. It served low-income pre-schoolers and their families in Lewiston-Auburn and surrounding communities Greene, Leeds, Lisbon, Livermore Falls, Mechanic Falls and Turner.
“Ann was admired and respected by colleagues and staff in the Head Start community throughout the State of Maine,” said Estelle Rubinstein, a friend who succeeded Ann as director.
"We have money for Star Wars but not for people," Ann told The Lewiston Sun-Journal in 1987 at a time when Congress was proposing a new missile system while seeking budget cuts for Head Start.
In Lewiston Ann served on the Planning Board and the League of Women Voters and was a steadfast Democrat who opposed the Vietnam War from its inception. She supported civil rights for minorities and women.
In retirement in the 1980s, Ann and her husband moved to the Boston area to care for their son, Jeffrey, who died of cancer in 1991. They settled in Cambridge and were accepted into the Harvard School of Learning in Retirement (HILR). Ann was a voracious reader, even later when her eyes started to fail. Her HILR classes included studies of Dickens and Proust.
In 2014 HILR honored Ann for her service on the Curriculum Committee and other achievements. At her condo building in Cambridge, she served on the landscaping and library committees and wrote copy for the building’s newsletter.
For a time she pursued a hobby making necklaces and earrings from rocks and items found in nature. She loved art, museums and trying restaurants for the first time.
She and Larry participated in guided archaeological digs in Mexico and Europe. They enjoyed traveling to San Miguel de Allende in Mexico, Cuba, Italy, Spain, the Mayan ruins and Ogunquit, Maine.
She is survived by a daughter, Sandra Simon and her husband Larry Simon, of Marlton, N.J,; a son Michael Ward and his wife, Isabelle Cattez Ward, of Cambridge; a son Peter Ward of Cambridge, a grandson Clay Ward, of Rockland, Mass., a grandson Alex Ward and his wife Christine Hilt of Washington, D.C.; a grand-daughter Melissa Simon Wall and her husband, Kevin Wall, of Florida, and a great-grandson, Ember C. Ward. In addition to a son, Jeffrey, two daughters-in-law also pre-deceased her, Mai Cramer and Bonnie Agnew.
Her ashes will be placed at Mount Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge near a bench that honors her, her husband and son Jeffrey. A memorial service may take place around her birthday in March at a place and time TBD.
In lieu of flowers, please consider making a donation to Heifer International or The Arbor Day Foundation.