Dave Ward
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Revision as of 13:22, 18 May 2009 by Phil (talk | contribs) (New page: '''David H. "Dave" Ward''' was a blacksmith and founder of the Ward Body Works in Conway, Arkansas. Ward became owner of the company that bears his name in 1968, passing from the ...)
David H. "Dave" Ward was a blacksmith and founder of the Ward Body Works in Conway, Arkansas.
Ward became owner of the company that bears his name in 1968, passing from the hands of his father David H. "Dave" Ward. The elder Ward, a blacksmith by trade, founded Ward Body Works in Conway in the 1930s to manufacture all-steel buses.
The company passed into the hands of son Charles Ward in 1968. By 1973 it was the largest school bus manufacturer in the world, with a twenty-five percent market share. A second plant opened in Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania, but this operation failed in 1975. The company, then known as Ward School Bus Manufacturing, went into Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 1979. The plant in Conway is now owned by the IC Corporation.
