David Ward

1946 - 2020

My older brother, David Ward, passed away last week in his home in Alexandria. He was 74 years old.

Dave was a Vietnam veteran, an inventor that spent his entire career modernized the Farmers Rice Mill in Lake Charles and a volunteer  at the SFHM for the last 15 years. He did several wiring projects on the Commissary and Planer Mill, helped me restore the Fairmont S2 speeder (M1), rejuvenated the A4 speeder (M2), but more importantly.... really enjoyed his later years working around the railroad at the museum!

The Buzz Coil in the S2 speeder (M1) was passed down to Dave from our Grandfather. It's probably a hundred years old now.

Dave was a wonderful story teller, a skill he learned from our grandfather who was a Western Union telegrapher and station agent at several Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe depots throughout Texas. Dave and I lived our summers playing at the depots climbing on the cars and waiting for the local train to come in for lunch. The best part of the day was watching the Santa Fe Super Chief passenger train's mail car grab the mail-bag going 60 MPH!

Dave's earliest happy memory was a time that my grandfather picked him up high and handed him to the engineer so he could ride a steam locomotive into the roundhouse in Lomita, Texas. His last good times were driving the A4 speeder (M2) around the tracks at the Southern Forest Heritage Museum.

Bill Ward

RR&G Team Leader