Frank K. Ward, who retired from Texaco’s research laboratory in Beacon in 1994 after a career at Texaco spanning more than 32 years, died on Friday, December 24, 2010. He was 79 and had been a resident of Wingate at Dutchess in Fishkill since July 2007.
Dr. Ward was born January 19, 1931 in Brockton, MA, the son of Frank and Rose LeDoux Ward. A 1954 graduate of Boston College, he completed his Ph.D. in organic chemistry at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1958. It was at M.I.T. that he met his wife of 54 years, Phoebe Elizabeth “Betty” Driscoll Ward, who had graduated from Simmons College in Boston with a B.S. in chemistry and was working for the professor overseeing Dr. Ward’s dissertation. Dr. Ward joined Texaco in 1962. An active member of the community, he enjoyed coaching East Fishkill Little League Baseball in the 1970s and was Chairman of the East Fishkill Zoning Board from 1968 to 1988. At the time of his retirement from Texaco, he was a member of Texaco’s Environmental Protection Department with subject matter expertise in water pollution remediation. He traveled extensively for Texaco in the last several years of his career and participated in Texaco’s lobbying efforts in Washington, DC on numerous occasions.
He is survived by wife, Betty; a daughter and son-in-law, Katherine and Jeffrey Feld of Short Hill, NJ; a daughter and son-in-law, Elizabeth “Betsy” and Dr. Steven White of Irvine, CA; a son and daughter-in-law, Francis K. Ward III and Maria Saraceno-Ward of Hopewell Junction, NY; and his grandchildren, Deborah and James Feld, Allison, Carolyn, Andrea and Christopher White. He was predeceased by his brothers, Robert J. Ward and James R. Ward.
Calling hours will be on Sunday from 2 to 5 p.m. at the McHoul Funeral Home, Inc., 895 Route 82, Hopewell Junction. The Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated on Monday at 11 a.m. at St. Mary, Mother of the Church, 106 Jackson Street, Fishkill. Interment will follow in St. Denis Cemetery.
Memorial donations may be made in Dr. Ward’s memory to the Boston College Annual Fund at www.bc.edu/give.