Henry Clay Ward ’57

Clay’s penultimate stage of life began in 1989. “Largely because Harriette went to work to help send our kids through private school and college, I was able to retire,” he wrote. Clay was 55 then. 

Clay’s career was as an electrical engineer with New Jersey Bell including predecessors and successors — the final one, Verizon. He left as a divisional manager in charge of what came to be known as cellphones. Subsequently, he devoted time to his rose and vegetable gardens, caring for their large, shaggy white dogs, and traveling. He and Harriette attended virtually every class reunion and many of the mini-reunions in this country and abroad. He lugged about an oxygen tank to compensate for the damage smoking had done to his lungs. He was an active member of their 1704 Episcopal church, serving on the vestry and as warden.  

He attended the Lawrenceville School. At Princeton he dined at Terrace Club and roomed senior year with Beresford Smith. 

Clay died April 9, 2020, of the effects of Alzheimer’s, which had become apparent to Harriette five years before. “He was happy, in a fantasy world better than the reality world I was in,” she remarked. He leaves behind Harriette, whom he married in 1958, two daughters, one son, and four grandchildren.