Gail Marie Ward

Portsmouth, RI ? Commander Gail Marie Ward, United States Navy Retired 69, died on December 12, 2007 in her home in Portsmouth from cancer. Commander Ward was born September 25, 1938 in Hamilton, Montana to Fred Reese Ward and Catherine Helen Milliken Ward. She resided in Hamilton the early years of her life, moving subsequently to Havre and Great Falls, both in Montana. She earned a B.A., Summa Cum Laude, in History from the University of Montana in 1960 where she was a member of Alpha Phi Sorority and the Mortar Board. Upon graduating she won a Fulbright scholarship to study in England for a year. In 1973 she received a Master of Arts in Law and Diplomacy from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University. In 1964 Commander Ward joined the U.S. Navy and was commissioned as an ensign in August 1964. During her career she was stationed three times at the Pentagon where she worked in international and political-military affairs on the Navy Staff. She had two tours at the Naval War College as a student and then as an instructor in the Strategy and Policy Department. Commander Ward taught for three years at the Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland in the History Department. Rounding out her teaching duties, Commander Ward served as the Executive Officer at the Naval Reserve Officers? Training Unit at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. As a junior officer she served on the Naval Station Treasure Island, San Francisco, and at the Women Officers? School, Newport as a Staff Advisor. She retired from the Navy after twenty-two years of service in 1986, residing in Arlington, Virginia before returning to Aquidneck Island, where she lived in Portsmouth. Commander Ward is survived by; two sisters, Janice Magee of Salina, Kansas, and Catherine Gladney of Savannah, Georgia; six nieces, three nephews, twenty-one great-nieces and great-nephews, and friends she considered the best a person could have.Commander Ward was an enthusiastic gardener, amateur genealogist, and a life-long lover of cats. She also enjoyed many trips to Great Britain, Europe, and the Near East with her friend Betsy Wylie and their travel buddies at the Newport Art Museum.Interment will be private at Trinity Cemetery, Portsmouth, Rhode Island. A memorial service will be held at the Memorial Funeral Home, 375 Broadway, Newport, on Saturday, December 15, 2007, at 12:30pm with a reception to follow.Donations in Commander Ward?s memory may be made to: The Robert Potter League for Animals, PO Box 412, Newport, RI 02840; Women and Infants Hospital, 101 Dudley Street, Providence, RI, 02905; or Hospice Care of the Visiting Nurse Services, 1184 East Main Road, Portsmouth, RI.