William E. Ward

(Cleveland, Ohio, 1922 - 2004)

North America, American

Born in Cleveland in 1922 to Edward and Lura D. Ward and educated at the Cleveland Institute of Art (CIA), Western Reserve University (B.S., 1947; M.A., 1948) and Columbia University (additional graduate work, 1950), Ward was a talented painter, photographer, lecturer and calligrapher. Introduced to the cultures of Ceylon, India and Japan during a four-year stint with U.S. Army Terrain Intelligence (1942–45), he became a master of calligraphy and taught that subject at CIA, beginning in 1960. He worked for the Cleveland Museum of Art for three-and-a-half decades between 1957 and his retirement in 1993 as the museum’s chief designer.

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