In Memoriam Beloved Teacher, Coach, and Friend Remembering Steve Ward
On the morning of January 19, legendary and long-time faculty member Steve Ward died—peacefully, and at home— after a long illness. Beginning when he was hired in 1976, Steve had a significant impact on the lives of countless Roxbury Latin boys. When Steve retired in 2014, he was appropriately celebrated for his distinctive and effective style as a teacher of history, highly successful varsity wrestling coach, lighthearted coach of junior varsity baseball, devoted advisor, and fair-minded Dean of Students. Over nearly four decades, Mr. Ward—like the bards of old— found stories to be the best way to teach any important ideas or values. An inveterate storyteller, and a master weaver of seemingly disparate references (often involving baseball or Yogi Berra!), Mr. Ward made his classes meaningful and memorable. While the usual business of history was attended to, his courses were never about names, places, and dates, but the forces that shaped the events, and the patterns of institutions, governments, and people that were evident time
and time again. Mr. Ward’s classes were popular for all the right reasons: they engaged the learner, gave him a chance to experience historical concepts first hand, and expected him to go away with lessons that would inform his life. In his years at RL, Mr. Ward taught U.S. History, Western Civ, and wonderfully wrought electives on America at War and Contemporary America. Mr. Ward’s students, like his athletes, always felt he was rooting for them, giving them the benefit of the doubt, helping to find some reasonableness and even humor in what others might construe as a serious, even dire situation. For thirteen years, Mr. Ward served as Dean of Students. Outside the classroom, however, Mr. Ward’s most famous contributions to the life of the school were as a coach. He worked effectively as junior varsity baseball coach, as assistant coach for the varsity baseball team, and for many years as a football coach. Most famously, however, Mr. Ward was for 36 years the head coach of the varsity wrestling team. The
N e w s l e t t e r o f Th e R o x b u r y L at i n S c h o o l
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