William Ward

The classical author, Thucydides, penned these words. "What you leave behind is not what is engraved in stone monuments, but that which is woven into the lives of others". Life for William "Junior" Terrell Ward, Jr. had as humble a beginning as any life could. He was born December 8, 1931, in a wide place of the back roads of Randolph County Alabama known as Napoleon. He was one of three children born to the late William Terrell Ward, Sr., and Jessie Johnson Ward. 

Following the death of Junior's birth mother, when he was two years old, Mr. Ward, Sr. married Lois Wilson and together they had five children. Mr. Ward, Sr. owned a country store, and with the depression ravaging the country, Mr. Ward also took his merchandise to his customers in his rolling store, which was a unique feature of farming life at the time. Junior's first job right out of high school was working on roads and bridges for the Alabama Highway Department. He eventually took college classes and became a licensed engineer in Birmingham. He came along during a time when your common sense carried as much weight as a diploma hanging on the wall. In 1952 he made the greatest discovery of his life when he found the lady who would become his wife. He married Jeanette Martin whom he had met while working on a road project near her home.