John William Ward (1922–1985), was the 14th President of Amherst College, a veteran of World War II, Professor of English and History at Princeton University, and Chairman of the Ward Commission. Early life and education Ward was born in Boston, Massachusetts, the son of John Joseph Ward, a physician, and Margaret Mary Carrigan. Ward attended Boston Latin school where he played football, captaining the team his senior season when it went undefeated. He entered Harvard College in 1941. However, he enlisted in the Marine Corps after the attack on Pearl Harbor. He served as a drill instructor at Paris Island (SC) and on the heavy cruiser USS Augusta. Demobilized in 1945, he returned to Harvard, changed his concentration from pre-med to history and literature, and graduated with honors in 1947-48, albeit as a member of the class of 1945 because of his wartime service. After a brief period in retail, he enrolled in the doctoral program in English and American Studies at the University of Minnesota, where his advisor was Henry Nash Smith. Leo Marx, another Smith student was also on the faculty, and he and Ward became life long friends and colleagues. Professor at Princeton and Amherst He went to become a professor of English and History at Princeton University from 1952 to 1964. At Princeton, he became Chair of the Special Program in American Civilization. He was also a teacher and mentor to Bill Bradley. He began his long association with Amherst College in 1964 when he accepted a Chair in History and American Studies. He was a professor from 1964-1971. It was during this time that Ward would publish Andrew Jackson: Symbol for an Age (1955), and Red, White, and Blue: Men, Books, and Ideas in American Culture 1969. President of Amherst College In 1971, Ward became the fourteenth President of Amherst College, a position he held until 1979. Perhaps more than anything, Ward's presidency at Amherst was marked by the introduction of coeducation. The Trustees of the College reluctantly voted in favor of it in November 1974, the first female students were admitted in the fall of 1975, and the first women graduated in June 1976. Ward will also be remembered during his presidency for participating in a 1972 antiwar protest at Westover Air Force Base in Chicopee, Massachusetts, where he and 471 other protesters blocked traffic for more than thirty minutes. The protesters, including Ward,