Dave Ward
David H. "Dave" Ward was a blacksmith and founder of the Ward Body Works in Conway, Arkansas.
Ward started the company with $125 in 1933 after lowering the wooden roof of a school bus used by Carl Brady of the Southside School District located approximately fifteen miles north of Conway. In 1936 he began manufacturing all-steel bus bodies, the first in the country to do so. In the 1960s the company began an innovative program of computer-aided manufacturing with IBM 360s.
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.
The Ward family mansion is located at 1912 Caldwell Street in Conway. The brick-and-steel mansion, dating to 1951, is now under commercial operation as the Ward Mansion Bed & Breakfast.
Dave Ward Drive in Conway (also known as Arkansas Highway 286) is named for the bus company founder.
References
- Barry Beck, "Ward Industries, Inc.: A Historical Study," Faulkner Facts and Fiddlings 16 (Winter 1974): 67-83.
- John Henry, "Arkansas' 'Auto' Plant Still Going Strong After 75 years," '"Arkansas Business, June 30, 2008.
- Toby Manthey, "Maker of School Buses Lays Off 170 in Conway," Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, March 27, 2009.
- Ward Body Works, Inc., Ward, the Champion of Transportation: Designed for the Safety of Your Children (Conway, AR: The Company, 1954).
