by Rob Clay
Bob Ward has lived in many places, worked in all of them and raised a fine family. At 100 that is saying something.

Bob was born John Robertson Ward in Dewey, Oklahoma November 4th 1916. Bob’s folks moved to Topeka, Kansas, living there until Bob turned 11. Then it was off to Carthage, Missouri. Before long, during the beginning of the Great Depression, some family moved to the Pacific Northwest. Bob’s mom and dad followed n 1932.

As a teen, in those years, Bob took the old Kirkland ferry boat over to Seattle to learn to play the alto-saxophone at Sherman Clay Music downtown. He also loved to hunt and fish with his dad in the Snoqualmie Forest foothills. It was then he learned that smoking and a box of .22 caliber shells was the same out of pocket. He opted for the shells like the good boy scout he was; reaching the rank of Eagle scout.

Never shy about work, Bob cut wood and dodged death in the gale of ’34 when a falling tree narrowly missed him. Bob sold vacuum cleaners, worked at Seafirst Bank, met the beautiful Esther Agard and got married by 1936. His gift on their honeymoon was a hike up Mt. Si near North Bend. He is a romantic.

When Bob left SeaFirst he hired on as a farm hand in the Snoqualmie Valley where his dad worked for the power and light company. Esther’s family had moved to Ketchum, Idaho. Esther and Bob joined them.

A short time later it was back to Seattle for the hard-working couple. They applied at the University of Washington but withdrew when money was short. Bob helped build an airport out at Forks, Wa. Esther got pregnant with their first child. Esther was anxious to show her family her newborn so she and Bob moved back to Sun Valley.

Sun Valley was expanding. Bob took a job as an elevator operator. Business was up and down. The ever elegant Esther appeared as an extra in a film starring Claudette Colbert and Melvin Douglas (I met him in Paris). Even show biz was not enough to make ends meet. Back in Seattle Bob took a job at Manning’s Restaurant He later clerked at a small grocery in Snoqualmie.

A break came in 1940 when Bob took a correspondence course in aircraft construction and engineering. It paid off with a job at Lockheed, followed by a job in Miami at Northrup. The heat and humidity of Miami was too much for the kids to deal with so Bob applied for work back in Seattle at the Boeing company.

For the remainder of WWII Bob had a good job. Boeing laid off several workers at the end of 1945. Bob was in the last round of layoffs but quickly was rehired in 1946. With Boeing hitting its stride in the Cold War, Bob was offered a job in Wichita, Kansas working on the B-47 line. He turned it down for the flight test program on the B-52’s in Seattle.

With an adventurous spirit Bob began riding motorcycles. He was 54 sitting atop a BMW 600 and touring a variety of places with his son. He did the same with Esther but in their motorhome. Esther liked the creature comforts.

Bob stayed with Boeing until his retirement in 1982. Esther passed away in 2004.

Today the family cares for Bob in a home he built near Mt. Rainier High School in Des Moines. After 100 years of working, raising a family and living the better part of it in the northwest, that’s saying something.