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Ward was born in Florence, Italy. He graduated in architecture from MIT in 1916 and 1919, also attending Columbia in 1916 and Harvard in 1919. He opened a practice in Boston in 1921 which lasted until in 1946, he established RWA in Antigua, a designer of resorts and private homes in the Caribbean. In what would become the Mill Reef Club, he led a group from the US who purchased 1,400 acres of sugar-cane farmland to create a new resort. RWA expanded in 1958 with the opening of a new head office in Nassau. Soon after, the firm was commissioned by Pan Am CEO Juan Trippe to master plan and design the Cotton Bay Club in Eleuthera. The gated community was integrated into an 18-hole golf course, the first off-shore commission for renowned golf course designer Robert Trent Jones. In 1960, a third office was opened in Barbados, where the firm designed the original Sandy Lane Hotel, its golf course, and residential development. Today, RWA maintains fully functioning offices in Antigua, the Bahamas, and Barbados. He designed the Stanford Employees Credit Union in 1964, Stanford CA; Falmouth Jr. HS, Falmouth MA; Woolworth Memorial Chapel, Bronx NY.
Ward first married Sylvia Whiting and they had three children: John Robertson Ward, Jr., Sylvia (Susie) Ward Sawyer, and Shelia Ward. His second wife was Dot, who had three children from her first marriage. His third wife was Dolly. At the end of his career, he moved to London UK in Knightsbridge. He also had a house in La Torelle, Molgny, France.
Son John Robertson Ward Jr. (1922-2014) graduated in physics from Harvard in 1945 and in architecture from Harvard in 1951. He did graduate work at IIT in 1952, worked for Skidmore Owings Merrill, taught at IIT and then opened his own practice in Chicago in 1960. He designed Dickinson Science, Tishman Lecture Hall, and the Visual Arts and Performing Arts Center at Bennington College, among many other buildings in the northeast. His daughter is Robin Ward Miller.
1937 - The Franklin B. Kirkbride House, aka Five Wells, 909 West Road, New Canaan CT. Interiors by William Muschenheim. When it was built, the locals who disliked it called it the Fairfield County Jail. It was New Canaan's first Modernist residence, way before the Harvard 5. Photos by Alfred Cook. Featured in the book Modern House in America, 1940; Landmarks of New Canaan, 1951; Architectural Record November 1938; House and Garden April 1939. Destroyed 1970.
Sources include: 2009 New Canaan Modernism Survey.