Kenneth Lewis Ward

Kenneth Lewis Ward was born on August 8, 1916 and went home to be with the Lord on Thanksgiving Day at the age of 100. Dad was born and raised in Kaskela, a small town on the Deschutes River, the third of five children of Maurice and Lulu Ward. The family lived in The Dalles, Logan, and Clackamas before settling in Gladstone, where Ken graduated from Milwaukie High School, where he was a sprinter on the school’s track team. He was a descendant of Mathias and Elizabeth Kirchem, Prussian immigrants who homesteaded in Oregon in the early 1800’s. Many of their descendants (the “Kirchem Clan”) still reside in the state, and number in the hundreds. In 1938, after attending business school in Portland, Dad was called to active duty in the Navy, a moment that he knew was inevitable. He knew that President Roosevelt was preparing the whole country and he was ready to go. He joined the crew of the USS Neville, a passenger liner that had been converted into a troop ship and outfitted to accommodate 1,200 Marines. He spent the summer of 1941 on the East Coast, working on landing maneuvers on the beaches of North Carolina. When the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, the USS Neville left port for Belfast, Ireland. “It was the height of German submarines’ sinking ships in the Atlantic, Dad said, “But we were lucky – we traveled in a convoy of 15 troop carriers and six escorting combat vessels. That helped keep us safe.” After unloading troops in Belfast, the ship headed for the South Pacific. By day, Dad worked as the ship’s storekeeper, in charge of supplies for hundreds of men. By night, he and his crewmates took turns keeping watch, often seeing the fiery glow of bombs exploding on the horizon. In August 1942, after a stop in New Zealand, the ship landed on Tulagi, one of the Solomon Islands next to Guadalcanal. “The Japanese had built airstrips on Guadalcanal and had a base on Tulagi. The naval air carriers had already started to bomb. The first day we were there, there was a Japanese air attack, but the Air Force drove them off. The next day, there was a lot of low-level bombing, with the Japanese flying right in low. It was terrifying. You could not imagine it unless you had been there.” A shipmate and close friend of Dad’s was shot and killed during the attack. “He was shot in the head,” Dad recalled. “They brought back his bones and buried them at Portland’s veteran cemetery”. Amid the fighting, the ship was ordered to leave the area and sailed to Auckland, New Zealand, where it was put into dry-dock. Dad was among the few spared the suffering of wounds or malaria. After orders sending him back to the states were abruptly reversed, Dad said fate stepped in to lend a silver lining to the dismal experience. “I had been in Auckland two years”, Dad said. “By this time I was a chief petty officer. We had a club for CPOs, and there had to be one CPO on duty every night. It wasn’t my night, but a buddy convinced me to take his place. I’m glad I did, because that’s the night I met Stella. We kept looking at each other from across the room.” Dad said it was love at first sight, and he and Stella, a New Zealand native, were married two years later. They remained married for over 55 years. After the war ended in 1945, Ken and Stella moved to Portland, where they lived in the north (Clarendon Street) and northeast (Alameda) parts of town and where they raised their two daughters, Dolores (Dee) and Merrilie. Dad worked as an accountant and controller for Cal-Ore Company, a dealer of heavy machinery. He was an active member of Portland’s chapter of the National Association of Accountants (NAA) during this time. Among family activities during this time were trips to the Oregon beaches and to the Metolius River in Central Oregon. Dad and Mom loved to travel and over the years visited Hawaii, the Greek Islands, Egypt, Majorca (in Spain), Italy, England, France, Germany, Belgium, Switzerland, Holland, and Victoria. Even after Mom’s passing, Ken continued to take trips to Hawaii, the Caribbean, and even an Alaska Cruise in 2009 with his two daughters and families. One of his most memorable trips was his return to the South Pacific islands (including Guadalcanal, Okinawa, the Solomons, Midway, and Iwo Jima) where he served during the war. He and Stella also participated in a Monday night bowling league in Portland. Following Ken’s retirement, they moved to Gresham into a quaint one-story house next to the local golf course. This prime location prompted Ken to take up golf, which he played twice a week with a group of friends. He really enjoyed it and became quite good, even scoring a hole-in-one on the Glendoveer course. He also met with a group of survivors from the USS Neville once each month, which he also enjoyed and which gave him comfort. Ken become a Christian at the age of eighty-seven and enthusiastically served God as a greeter at his church, Greater Gresham Baptist. Also in retirement, Ken became a charter member of the World War II Memorial Society, which eventually raised more than $100 million to build the memorial between the Washington Monument and the Lincoln Memorial on the Washington, D.C. mall. As a local member of the national society, he attended and spoke to high school students (in full uniform) about his war experiences and the importance of giving 100 percent effort in everything they do. He was thrilled to be invited to his alma mater to take part in the school’s “Living History Day” honoring World War II veterans, a day of tribute that the Milwaukie High School students hosted for several years. As Dad recalled, “It was great. The kids raised all the money themselves. The veterans visited and told their stories. The kids got all dressed up in honor of the occasion. The girls wore dresses and the boys were dressed up – no baseball caps. It was a real honor to be there.” Ken’s wife Stella passed away in 2002 at the age of 87 and he spent his final years at Cherry Park Plaza in Gresham. Ken is survived by his two daughters, Dee Johnson (husband Steve) and Merrilie Cardiall (husband Tom), five grandchildren: Alissa Anderson, Suzanne Johnson, Cherie Bidwell, Carrie Custer, and Anthony Cardialli, and 11 great-grandchildren: Olivia, Austin, Tyler, Kenny, Ellianna, Nickolas, Colton, McKenna, Max, Stella, and Penelope. We loved our Dad and will miss him very much. He loved God, his country, his church, and his wife and family. He lived a full life and shared it with all of us. Service Information