Following a lifetime of service to the University, Dean of Alumni Judson Ward (’33C, ’36G), who was instrumental in the development of the alumni association and oversaw the admission of black students and women to all divisions of the University, died on Sunday. He was 97.

Ward died after a long decline in health while recovering from hip surgery, according to a Universitywide e-mail sent Sunday evening.

Ward will have been a part of the Emory community for 80 years this fall.

After graduating from Emory College in 1933 and receiving his master’s degree from Emory in 1936, he agreed to teach English and history at Fitzgerald High School in south Georgia.

After receiving his doctorate in history from the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, he became president of South Georgia Teachers College, now Georgia Southern University, in Statesboro, Ga. He was soon after promoted to assistant chancellor of the University System of Georgia.

Ward returned to Emory as the dean of the undergraduate liberal arts college and a professor of history. In 1957, he advanced to vice president and dean of faculties where he stayed until he retired in 1979. Then, in 1985, Ward accepted the position of dean of alumni which he retained until his death.

In 1962, when former University President Walter Martin resigned, Ward, Chancellor Goodrich White (’08C) and former chairman of the board of trustees Henry Bowden (’32C, ’34L) were selected by the Board of Trustees to head the University until a new president could be selected. During the period between presidents, Ward oversaw the integration of blacks into the student body of the University.

“He was passionate about people,” said Pete, Ward’s son. “He loved people. He liked everybody. He drew strength from being around people and communicating with people. ... He genuinely cared about everyone. It wasn’t just a false friendliness.”

He was able to fill his need to communicate with people through his work at Emory and his participation in the Glenn United Methodist Church where he taught a “couples” bible study class for 50 years, Pete said. The class would eventually be named the Judson C. Ward Class in honor of his 50 years of service, he added.

Pete said he grew up in a stable home where the fame and success of his father was not a constant presence looming over him.

“Being the son of a famous man can be a very difficult life. You could ruin your life just trying to keep up with him, but he never did put any more pressure on us to succeed than he knew we were capable of,” he said.

Ward constantly worked to give alumni a more prominent role at the University, Dykes said. He continued to work at the Miller-Ward Alumni House up until the final few months of life.

“He was an extraordinary man. One of the most caring, positive and engaging men at Emory. ... He was a bridge, a historian. He saw the development of the University,” Vice President for Alumni Relations Allison Dykes said.

Vice President and Deputy to the President Gary Hauk called Ward a man whom he tries to emulate, especially Ward’s serene spirit that was able to rise above personal turmoil and provided an irreplaceable link to two very different Emorys: a quiet small university and a large research university.

Hauk remembers driving Ward from his assisted living housing to a memorial service for Bond Fleming, former dean of Oxford College, who died on June 27, 2009.

“It was always a sorrow for him to watch many of his friends die while he was still living,” Hauk said.

But while in Glenn for Bond’s memorial service, Hauk said, “there was a constant flow of people shaking his hand ... [and] he was delighted by the presence of these people.”

While serving as dean of alumni, he wrote “thousands, if not tens of thousands of letters to alumni congratulating them on the birth of children, marriage or an honor of one kind or another,” Hauk added.

Ward is survived by his wife Susan-Jane, his children Peter, Mike, Becky and Jonathan, five grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.

— Contact Matthew Tamul