Year Honored: 2002

Birth: 1911 - 2000

Born in: Missouri

Biography

Mary Sam Ward grew up on a farm in Missouri, riding five miles a day to one-room schoolhouse. She taught at the same one room schoolhouse in order to earn money for college. Ward eventually graduated from Northeast Missouri State College with a degree in history, after which she taught Junior High School.

During World War II, Ward was chosen for the first officer training class of the Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps. After, she returned to school and earned two master’s degrees at the University of Delaware. At Alma Moore College in Wilmington, Ward taught American History and was Dean of Social Studies.

Ward led a Girl Scouts Troop, focusing on ‘colonial pathways’ and created an encampment with that theme in Delaware in 1974. She was also the Director of the Girl Scouts Bicentennial Project for the Wilmington Area Girl Scout Council and created a project that would become ‘Delaware Women Remembered’ (1977), the first book to chronicle the lives of Delaware Women. She also wrote ‘A Legacy from Delaware Women’ (1987), ‘Our Spiritual Heritage: The History of St. James Church in Newport,’ and a number of other articles on historical preservation, women’s issues, scouting, and sports.

She also worked at Hagley Museum for more than 25 years, creating Henry Clay Days which depicted 19th Century Life. She was President of the Women of Christ Church Christiana Hundred, President of Pen Women, and organized an exhibit on Delaware Women for the Delaware Historical Society. For her work she was awarded Scouts highest honor, the ‘Thanks Badge,’ in 1975, for “a lifetime of service to family, community, state, and nation.” She was also named Delaware Mother of the Year (1979) and ‘Women of the Millennium’ (2000) by the National Federation of Press Women.
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Sources and Additional Readings

Mary Sam Ward (1911-2000) - find a grave memorial. Find a Grave. (n.d.). Retrieved January 13, 2022, from https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/26687631/mary-sam-ward