We met in a 10th grade civics class at South High School in 1951 and started dating shortly after. Ward was senior class president for the class of 1954. I went to Western Michigan. University for one semester and then worked as secretary for the advertising manager at the Grand Rapids Press for about three years before we were married in 1957. Ward went to Grand Rapids Junior College for two years and then to the University of Michigan to study mechanical engineering (BSE ‘58, MSE ‘59, PhD ‘62). I worked as a secretary in the psychology department at UM until our first child was born in 1959.
In 1961, Ward received a grant to do postdoctoral studies in physics at Cambridge University in England for two years where he earned a PhD in physics and we had our third son. In 1963 we returned to the U.of Michigan where Ward was on the mechanical engineering faculty until 1969 when we moved to Atlanta where Ward took a position on the ME faculty at Georgia Tech.
We adopted our daughter in 1970. We now have 11 grandchildren and one great grandchild. Ward retired from full time service at Georgia Tech in 2007 after having served as chair of the Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering for the previous 20 years. Over the years I worked in the gig economy holding numerous positions.We are fortunate to have established friendships throughout our lives from the time at South High School on and in the many places we have lived both in the USA and abroad. As a result of my stroke in June 2019, we now live in Saint George Village in Roswell GA.
