Thomas Wren Ward

Banker

Centurion, 1867–1940

Proposed by
George Bancroft and Edward F. Davison

born October 8, 1844
Lenox, Massachusetts

died July 18, 1940
Boston, Massachusetts

elected October 5, 1867
Age twenty-two

buried Mount Auburn Cemetery,
Cambridge, Massachusetts

Archivist’s Notes

Son of Samuel G. Ward; nephew of George Cabot Ward; cousin of Robert Barker; brother-in-law of Richard von Hoffman; father of Cabot Ward. His seventy-three-year tenure of membership is the second longest in Century Association history.

Century Memorial

It is often contended that membership in the Century all but guarantees a long life. Thomas Wren Ward—a native of Lenox—for several years the oldest Centurion and the oldest Harvard alumnus, died in Jamaica Plain in his ninety-sixth year. In spite of an afflicting deafness, he enjoyed life until very near the end. Even in the past decade, the Century heard from him occasionally and he read and cherished all the notices and bulletins of the Association. With youthful ardor he kept certain regular luncheon engagements in Boston.

As a young man in Cambridge he consorted with the late William James and the late Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes. In 1865 he stole away from college to join Professor Louis Agassiz’s fruitful expedition to Brazil. In 1871 he entered his father’s banking firm, S. G. & G. C. Ward & Co., American representatives of Baring Brothers, and later joined Kidder, Peabody & Co. At the age of twenty-three [sic: twenty-two] he was elected to the Century. The late Cabot Ward, Centurion, New York City Park Commissioner, was his son.

Geoffrey Parsons
1940 Century Memorials

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