Richard Allen Ward

Richard Allen Ward

Greenfield educator and essayist Richard Ward, 90, died in the early morning hours of Wednesday, April 9, 2025,  at his residence in rural Greenfield.  He was in the company of his loving wife Nancy and all four of his loving children.

Visitation with family and friends will be held at 11:00 on Saturday, April 12th at Williams Funeral home with a celebration of life service following at 1:00 pm.

Born December 8, 1934, in Kansas City, MO, Ward was son of the late Claude Allison Ward, Jr. and Thelma Owens Ward.  He grew up in Memphis TN where he graduated from Central High School in 1953.  During those early years and while a member of a U.S. Presbyterian (Southern) church, he served a two-year term as president of that denomination’s Tennessee Synod’s Youth Council.  After earning a B.S. Degree from Memphis State College and a M.A. Degree from George Peabody College, he taught in the public schools of Nashville and Memphis.  His later  art-related teaching included assistant professorships at Arkansas State College and Memphis State University.

In 1970, Ward shifted into school administration as Headmaster of private schools in Marianna, AR, and Memphis TN.  In 1972, he became Principal of Greenfield Elementary and Junior High School, the position he held until his retirement in 1989.  After a short career as Editor/Publisher of the Greenfield Guardian weekly newspaper, Ward taught four additional years at Baptist schools in Memphis and McKenzie.  He spent his truly-retired years as an essayist, writing numerous works on such diverse topics as the God-kept/preserved holiness of The Holy Bible;  the democratic advantages of lottery-styled elections for all political offices;  land use planning as governmental abuse of private ownership and personal stewardship; propaganda disguised as “news;”  conspiratorial oligarchy as “the one and only form-of-government mankind has ever had;”  gold and silver coin as God’s “tender for all debts, public and private;”  theft by central banking; the synagogue of God versus Rev. 2:9's “synagogue of Satan;” and why Federal Judge John Nixon and all similar rogue activist judges deserved impeachment.

Survivors include his wife, Nancy Barton Ward, and their four children: Jeffory Ward of Smyrna, TN, Nellie McFadden of Scottsboro, AL, Christa Clanton of Greenfield, TN, and Ben Ward of Goodletsville, TN;   13 grand-children and 23 great-grandchildren.  Richard Ward was a Life Member of the constitutionalist John Birch Society since 1966.  He in 1976 was the Founder of the ill-fated TTAU (Tennessee Teachers Against Unionism).