Bob Ward

Bob Ward

Bob was raised in Homewood (a suburb of Birmingham), AL. He enrolled at Auburn for mechanical engineering, with particular interest in mechanical drawing. However, a change of heart led him to transfer to West Alabama University to study journalism. He graduated with a journalism major and history minor in summer 1956, writing for the school newspaper along the way. He took an interim position in advertising with Ingles Industries, then applied to the Huntsville Times, where he would become a cub reporter in March 1957. Bob and Charles deviate briefly to discuss Huntsville figure Colonel Knickerson; his court martial illustrated how important the city would be as a source of news to Bob. He then segues into discussing space history, as well as his work "stringing" (working off-hours) in conjunction with his work at the Times. In 1962, he would get become the paper's direct correspondent for Redstone Arsenal-related news, which he marks as a signficant part of his career, and provides multiple stories from. After about 4 years as the space correspondent, he would transition into becoming the Sunday issue editor; in 1970, he would begin doing yearly major space pieces, cowriting for the editorial page. In 1974 (at age 40), he would become the managing editor; he would remain in this role for 19 years. Uniquely, Bob was selected to partake in a journalistic interchange with China; he also was partly involved in activities with the Chamber of Commerce. Bob would author multiple books, including a space humor book ("A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Moon"), a book on Von Braun's witticisms, a second humor book ("The Light Stuff") which would become part of the 1982 World's Fair in conjunction with the US Space and Rocket Center, and a more complete and balanced book on Von Braun (which ran into issues with the publisher-to-be Smithsonian Books, but found release with the Naval Institute Press as "Dr. Space: The Life of Werner Von Braun").

University of Alabama in Huntsville Archives and Special Collections, Huntsville, Alabama

2006-03-28

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Interviews

Video

Bob Ward (Space History Interviews).mp4

Lundquist, Charles

Ward, Bob

1:04:19