Gerry Ward, a former NBA player, Ridgefield entrepreneur and founder of the Ridgefield Basketball Association, died April 10 at the age of 84. He is pictured here in South Africa with his wife Diana Ward.
Courtesy of Diana Ward
Gerry Ward, a former NBA player, Ridgefield entrepreneur and founder of the Ridgefield Basketball Association, died April 10 at the age of 84.
Courtesy of Diana Ward
Gerry Ward, a former NBA player, Ridgefield entrepreneur and founder of the Ridgefield Basketball Association, died April 10 at the age of 84. He is pictured here with his wife Diana Ward.
Courtesy of Diana Ward
Gerry Ward, a former NBA player, Ridgefield entrepreneur and founder of the Ridgefield Basketball Association, died April 10 at the age of 84. He is pictured here in South Africa with his wife Diana Ward.
Courtesy of Diana Ward
Gerry Ward, a former NBA player, Ridgefield entrepreneur and founder of the Ridgefield Basketball Association, died April 10 at the age of 84. He is pictured here with his wife Diana Ward.
Courtesy of Diana Ward
Gerry Ward, a former NBA player, Ridgefield entrepreneur and founder of the Ridgefield Basketball Association, died April 10 at the age of 84.
Courtesy of Diana Ward
RIDGEFIELD – Whether he was shooting baskets for the NBA, advocating for wildlife conservation or coaching future basketball players, Gerry Ward had “multiple communities” of friends, family and mentees throughout his life, his loved ones said.
“Wherever he went, he made groups of friends and authentically very much cared about people,” said Caroline Ward, a Norwalk resident and Ward’s daughter. She said her father wanted his life to be measured by “the communities and the effect he had on those communities and the love he gave and the love he received.”
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A former longtime Ridgefield resident, Ward died April 10 at the age of 84 after battling Alzheimer’s disease. He had been living at Meadow Ridge in Redding for nearly a year at the time of his death, according to Caroline Ward.
During his 50 years in Ridgefield, Ward founded three businesses, including the wholesale company Wildlife Artists Inc., the consulting firm Gerry Ward Associates and Wildlife Trading Company – all of which were geared toward visitors’ services at zoos nationwide, Caroline Ward said.
She said their family sold Wildlife Artists Inc and Wildlife Trading Company in 2021. Gerry Ward Associates also closed.
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Many of Ridgefield’s former basketball players may remember Ward for his coaching and mentorship on the court as the founder of the Ridgefield Basketball Association.
Diana Ward said her husband started the RBA in the gymnasium at St. Mary Parish after their daughter asked him to teach her how to play basketball.
Since the program’s founding around 1975, Caroline Ward said their father “really changed the trajectory of Ridgefield basketball,” while his son, Gary Ward, of Baskin Ridge, N.J., said giving people a chance was “the real milestone” of Gerry Ward’s work with the RBA.
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“He created a community where young athletes learned not just how to play, but how to compete, how to carry themselves, how to be teammates and how to treat others,” Gary Ward said. “For many in Ridgefield, he was their first coach, but more importantly, he was one of their first mentors. He used the sport as a vehicle to mentor a generation of players, teaching them how to be better people.”
Raised in the Bronx, Gerry Ward attended Boston College on a basketball scholarship to study mathematics, according to his obituary. He was the first athlete inducted into the Boston College Hall of Fame in 1970 and his basketball jersey was retired in 2007, according to his obituary.
Gerry Ward graduated in 1963 and was drafted to the NBA as the fifth overall pick by the St. Louis Hawks, his obituary states. He played four years in the NBA, spending a year each with the St. Louis Hawks, the Philadelphia 76ers, the Chicago Bulls and the Boston Celtics, who he won a championship with in 1965, according to his obituary.
Yet his NBA career was “never his identity” to his family or friends, Caroline Ward said.
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“His being an NBA player was never part of our lives,” she said. “It was the friends he had around him, his friends from his childhood and all the stories there … I remember him sharing something he was very proud of and it had nothing to do with basketball – it was changing someone’s life.”
Gary Ward said he remembers his father being “as competitive and demanding a coach as you would expect from a man who played in the NBA,” no matter where he was coaching. Yet despite his father’s want to win, Gary Ward said there were moments when his father would catch his eye during intense moments on the court and wink, calming his son down and allowing him to play with confidence.
“It felt like he was telling me that he believed in me, and that whatever happened next, I was going to be OK,” Gary Ward said. “I think about those winks a lot and try to carry that ability to be intensively competitive while remaining grounded and having perspective, and have come up with my own ‘wink’ with my kids during games or performances.”
In his free time, Gerry Ward enjoyed spending time with his friends and family and photographing in Africa, according to Gary Ward.
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In their 61 years as a couple, Diana Ward said she and Gerry Ward “knew right from the beginning” that being together was “the right path for us.” The couple have three children: Caroline, Gary and James Ward.
“He was the light of my life, he brought out the best of me,” said Diana Ward, a resident of Meadow Ridge. “We had a lot of differences – we were different religions, I grew up in the UK, he grew up in the Bronx – but none of it mattered … I never ever doubted him, I never ever doubted the fact that he would be able to take care of his family.”
Caroline Ward said her father was always the voice she could hear whenever she was playing basketball. Among her favorite memories of her father is hearing him sing to their family when he was leaving for work.
“Our kitchen table sat in front of a long picture window,” she said, “and when he was leaving for work and we were eating breakfast, he would walk out and sing ‘Goodbye My Coney Island Baby,’ but because there were three of us, he would sing ‘Goodbye My Coney Island Babies’ with theatrics.”
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Caroline Ward said her father kept singing throughout the end of his life “even when spoken words were leaving him.”
“I kind of look at it like bookends – my life with him with those early morning singings and at the end of his life where he was singing as well,” she said.
Ward’s family will receive family and friends on May 26 from 5 to 8 p.m. at Jowdy Kane Funeral Home, according to Ward’s obituary. A funeral mass will be celebrated on May 27 at 10 a.m. at Saint Elizabeth Seton Church in Ridgefield, followed by a reception, his obituary states.
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