If it were to be said that John L. Ward had little choice in the face of his powers but to follow a particular path and do it with flair and originality, it would be an accurate assumption.
He has done precisely that traveling the way of a newspaperman, an editor, author, musician, political seer (junkie?) with a certain joie de vivre.
So it is no surprise that his voluminous work, his collection of writing, photographs, personal and professional correspondence is now part of the archives at the University of Central Arkansas.
All this and considerably more will be processed and be ready for researchers by this fall, according to Jimmy Bryant, director of the UCA archives department.
Ward who is now ensconced in his home at Bee Branch may reflect on his career that had him serving as an aide to Arkansas Gov. Winthrop Rockefeller, as the managing editor of the Log Cabin Democrat and the originator of the famously attended and successful Toad Suck Daze festival, and his job as vice president of public affairs for the UCA. And this hardly touches other aspects of his accomplishments.
Compiling this treasure trove of stuff has been challenging, he admits. “The task of gathering and organizing all this material was most challenging. I recruited a librarian to help me get everything together and after several months of working afternoons we filled some eight banker’s boxes.“
Talent and facility are healthy words, and Ward has had an appetite for both. In his work as a prize-winning reporter for the old Arkansas Democrat newspaper in Little Rock, as a teacher, administrator and confidant to academia brass, Ward has made a difference and a contribution in the natural world around him.
He enjoyed his tenure as a journalism teacher at the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville, thus taking enjoyment from both sides of a byline.
Many have profited from their association with Ward. When he directed the action of public relations for Governor Rockefeller from 1964 to 1971 and managed Rockefeller’s successful re-election campaign in 1968, his staff included many bright lights in the field of public relations, including the likes of Judge Tom Eislie and newspaper columnist Charles Albright.
He remained with the Rockefeller family through Winthrop Paul Rockefeller’s successful bid for lieutenant governor of Arkansas in 1996, and as a board member of the Rockefeller Foundation and the Rockefeller Charitable Trust.
Ward’s affinity to Rockefeller is manifested in two books he authored — “The Arkansas Rockefeller” and “Winthrop Rockefeller, Philanthropist: A Life of Change”
“I’m honored, of course,” Ward says of the inclusion of his works at UCA. “I got into the habit from the earliest days of my professional life to save just about everything. I was considered to be ‘pack rat’ and so I am. The accumulation of 50 years suddenly was overwhelming. (But) It was a great relief to get it done. However, I am still adjusting to the fact that I had forgotten much of what I had been involved in though the years.”
One ought to hear an e-mail chuckle with that remark.
Awards and citations have followed in his wake, witness merits from the American Cancer Society, the Arkansas Press Association, service awards from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock and the Arkansas chapter of Sigma Delta Chi, society of professional journalists where he served as its president.
From the archives section at UCA, director Bryant offers his appreciation for the inclusion of Ward’s contributions, indicating heavy traffic by researchers who thirst for political information that only an insider can provide.
