Robert C. W. “Bob” Ward (1910 – 1998)
Robert Ward was born in Victoria, British Columbia. He graduated from the University of British Columbia with a BA in 1934. He attended the Anglican Theological College in Vancouver and was ordained in June 1936.1)
Reverend Ward worked in the Yukon Diocese from 1933 to 1946. He came to Carmacks in the summer of 1933 to teach summer school in Carmacks and Little Salmon, and stayed, after his ordination, until 1941. He also provided ministry at Fort Selkirk in 1937 and 1940. He was transferred to Teslin for two years in 1941. His final three years in Yukon were spent as the chaplain for the Alaska Highway South. Ward took photographs and films and documented changing modes of Yukon transportation. He left the Yukon on a sabbatical in 1946 to Calvary Church in New York City, and the following year was moved permanently to Stone Ridge, New York. Robert and Elizabeth were married in June 1947 and Rev. Ward remained in the state of New York until he retired.2)
Bob Ward donated his films, photos, and dairies of the Yukon to the Yukon Archives. His home movies were taken between 1941 and 1958 and capture scenes along the Alaska Highway and the Canol Road. His diary contains entries between May and August 1933. An interview conducted by Diane Chisholm in 1977 contains Ward’s account of life in Teslin and on the upper Yukon River, 1933 to 1946.3)