Ward Bond

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Biography

Clinton Ward Bond Obituary

In February 1940 on leap day (29th), Clinton Ward Bond was born to Maggie Leola Denham of Baton Rouge and her husband, C.W. "Clint" Bond, formerly of Amite, Louisiana, who later became president of Ethyl Corporation. Ward died on November 29 of congestive heart failure.

He leaves behind his wife Carole Hawes Bond and daughter Jenny Bond living in Baton Rouge and his daughter Julie Stinson, her husband Mike and their daughter Megan, who live in Mt. Pleasant, Michigan. He is also survived by his older sister Brenda Lee Hawes of Lafayette, younger sister Penny Bond of Asheville, NC and loving best friend, caretaker, and saint, Mark Gillette.

Ward attended Highland Elementary, University High, and the United States Naval Academy where he excelled and lettered four years in crew. His senior year, he captained the team which won the coveted Eastern Sprints title. He was engineering officer on the USS Maddox in 1964 during the Gulf of Tonkin Incident, where many believe Lyndon Johnson sent this destroyer with another, USS Turner Joy as "sacrificial lambs" to justify war with North Vietnam.

Ward was a very fine poet and photographer of all things Baton Rouge, compiling hundreds of images unique to our city, whose history was also his passion. He wrote A Story of Downtown Baton Rouge in 2008 which in the form of a letter to Mayor Kip Holden credited those who have preserved and advanced our city's history, culture, art and architecture - mostly volunteer citizens, some in government, never mentioning his own untiring efforts.

He was vital in securing federal funding for our Civic Center and Louisiana Arts and Science Center and other projects. As chairman of the Civic Center Committee, and the Baton Rouge Bicentennial Commission, he guided design and implementation of much of our downtown revitalization, bringing to its plazas our own sculptor Frank Hayden's historical interpretations of Bernardo de Galvez and Oliver Pollock, locals who figured greatly in the American Revolution. In the book A Tribute to Bernardo de Galvez, Ward wrote the biographical sketch of Pollock. He was influential in creating our floating museum, the USS Kidd, securing major items in its nautical collection on the levee.

Ward had well over 100 published letters to the editor and many inclusions in Smiley's column in The Advocate. He had an optimistic but very realistic view of our politics; he was often frustrated and spoke out against corruption. A Republican, in 1972 he was informed that the FAA wanted to put a major airport similar to DFW between Baton Rouge and New Orleans. The Nixon administration induced Northrop Airport Development Corporation to put up the funds, requiring nothing from the state. A site was chosen. Ward was given the duty to inform Governor Edwards of the "free" airport. In sharing this experience, Ward lamented that this gift became so encumbered with cronyism that the FAA informed him "We can't do business in Louisiana."

After serving four years in the Navy, he returned to Louisiana where he soon shunned a "corporate" job for an amazing list of entrepreneurial endeavors, working with inventors and engineers on start-up businesses, such as Fuel Manager, Cyclocrane, Infogrip and lastly, Talking Signs Inc., an infrared wayfinding and information system for people who are blind. With inventor Bill Loughborough, local engineer John Hilburn, and friend and disabilities advocate Jeff Moyer, he pioneered and later partnered with Mitsubishi of Japan to manufacture and install the transmitter/receiver devices in airports, bus and subway terminals, even major intersections in cities in the U.S., Canada, Norway and Japan.

Ward became a respected advocate of the blind community and was lovingly called "the Thomas Edison of wayfinding." Ward loved to encourage young artists and entrepreneurs in our community. We will always remember his "holding forth" in haunts like the Thirsty Tiger, M's Fine and Mellow Café, and enjoying dumplings at Poor Boy Lloyd's. His brilliance and humor at Friday breakfasts beginning with the "Hearts of Stone" at the Bread Basket, then to Louie's and Christina's where no history, philosophy, or theology was safe! A true believer in Jesus, from his Baptist upbringing, a couple of years in the "full-gospel, charismatic" church, then Presbyterian, and finally Catholic, Ward was always seeking a new orthodoxy.

Oh God, we miss our beloved friend. Thank You for allowing us his life. "Dear Smiley: Those clever devils at LPB are pandering shamelessly to us gray-hairs by selling us CDs from our days of slow-dancing and jitterbugging in the '50s. When the camera pans the old-timer audience during a song, hands are waving high in the air - not like the kids, in unison, but waving in all directions. This is either an indication that members of our generation march to his or her own drummer - or are just disoriented." - C. Ward Bond.

"Choosing is the essence of man, and choosing exquisitely is art." - C. Ward Bond.

A memorial celebration will be held January 3, 2016 at Magnolia Woods Clubhouse, 1159 Magnolia Wood Avenue in Baton Rouge from 5-8pm. All who knew and loved him are welcome.

Sources

• The Advoicate, Baton Rouge LA

https://obits.theadvocate.com/obituaries/theadvocate/obituary.aspx?n=clinton-ward-bond&pid=176870216