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Dade City Construction Official Built Reputation For Integrity

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By JO-ANN JOHNSTON, The Tampa Tribune

Published: October 18, 2007

DADE CITY - For more than 20 years, Wes Ward was the final word on building plans in Dade City.

As a former contractor, he knew how builders could get the job done while still following the rules.

He insisted on it.

Ward died Tuesday morning. He was 83 and had congestive heart disease.

The Dade City native retired as the city's building official in 1993 after 22 years on the job.

Those who knew him remember Ward as a thoughtful man, a perfectionist at his labors and true to his word.

'Everything about him was built around integrity,' said Bob Larkin, a local contractor who considered Ward both a friend and a business associate.

When Ward was the city's building official, everyone was treated the same - no special favors for friends and no tolerance for work that couldn't meet the safety and building standards, Larkin said.

'I'd hear that he was quite well-known for being a stickler for details,' said Dade City Commissioner Scott Black, first elected in 1990.

'He held his ground.'

As far as the contractors, Black said, 'If they disagreed with him, it wasn't personal. It just wasn't by the book.'

Ward became so familiar with the city code book that while meeting with someone in his office, he often would retrieve it from the shelf behind him and immediately turn to a relevant page.

'A lot of times, he could quote it off without looking at the book,' Larkin said.

His family saw Ward's high standards of craftsmanship during expansions and improvements to the home he built on the historic, brick-paved Church Avenue. When Ward wanted to build a garage, he didn't try to save time or effort by purchasing pre-made trusses from a building supplier, recalled his son, Jim, a helper on that particular project. The elder Ward crafted the design, and then he and his sons built it from the ground up - hand-made trusses included.

Wesley Ward learned the trade from his father and brother, who ran a family construction business.

He spent most of his life in Dade City, except for a semester after high school at the University of Florida and then three years of service with the U.S. Navy during World War II.

Ward spoke little about his war experiences, even though he was part of one of history's most famous battles, said his wife, Jean. The motor mechanic was among those who landed on Omaha Beach during the D-Day invasion in 1944. Ward came home on leave after that and then went to the Philippines for the rest of his service, through 1946.

Ward said she thinks her husband didn't talk about those experiences because he wanted to resume a normal life after the war - raising a family, working, family hunting and fishing trips.

She met her future husband of 48 years during her first year of teaching in Dade City, during the 1957-58 school year. He was 11 years older. They met through the First Baptist Church of Dade City, which they both attended.

Ward fished around for a low-risk way to run into the young teacher and establish a personal acquaintance, his wife recalled. Because he was working for the family construction business, he arranged for daily tasks in Dade City so he could be right next to her elementary school when she drove in to work.

'Wesley would be out there, loading the panel truck, and he would look up.'

WESLEY K. WARD

Born: Sept. 13, 1924, in Dade City
Died: Oct. 16, 2007 in Zephyrhills

Survivors: Wife, Jean Brinson Ward; sons Wesley Ward Jr. of Polk City and Jim A. Ward of Dade City; daughter Virginia Ward Fine of Sarasota; and several grandchildren, nieces and nephews

Services: Visitation is from 6 to 8 p.m. today. The funeral is at 2 p.m. Friday at Hodges Family Funeral Home, 11441 U.S. 301, Dade City.

Reporter Jo-Ann Johnston can be reached at (352) 521-3062 or jfjohnston@tampatrib.com.

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