Local figure
Ira Ward
Ira Ward, an Orange County native, joined the Army Air Corps in 1942 after graduating from UNC and won the Distinguished Flying Cross as a radio operator in the Southwest Pacific. Back home he served as Orange County manager, tax supervisor and commissioner.
Source: Orange County Courthouse Mural: Ira Ward
Orange County Indexed has not yet linked an indexed work directly to Ira Ward. The biography and the dated events on this page provide sources about Ira Ward’s life and work. If you know a useful source, tell us.
Life and Orange County connections
Dated events connected with this person, earliest first. See these 6 dated events in the chronology →
- Gilbert W. Ray becomes Orange County's first county accountant Under the 1927 County Fiscal Control Act the county hired Ray as accountant and purchasing agent, and he set up its first working system of books and central buying. Ray stayed in the job until August 31, 1947. People: Ira WardSearch the index · Lefler and Wager, Orange County, 1752-1952 (1953), p. 222
- Orange County commissioners turn to professional appraisers for a property revaluation In August 1952 the commissioners heard a representative of the Southern Mapping and Engineering Company and told county accountant and tax supervisor Ira Ward to draft a contract. By January 1953 they had decided with Ward that values would be set at current market value as of January 1, 1953, with a board of assessors overseeing the appraisers.Search the index · DigitalNC: The Chapel Hill Weekly, August 8, 1952, p. 1
- The county board names a committee to study school segregation after Brown Answering a letter from the Governor's Advisory Commission on Education, chaired by Thomas Pearsall, the Orange County board appointed a local committee to study the problems the Supreme Court's segregation ruling raised for its schools. Ira Ward and Delmar Brown soon replaced two of the first members, Bonner D. Sawyer and W. T. (Buck) Murray. People: Ira WardNC State Historic Preservation Office: Cedar Grove School, National Register nomination (OR3044), p. 21
- The Hillsboro Building and Loan Association becomes Hillsboro Savings and Loan Association On a vote of its stockholders, the association changed its name to Hillsboro Savings and Loan Association, announced alongside the largest dividend in its history. People: Ira WardSearch the index · DigitalNC: The News of Orange County, June 28, 1956, p. 1
- The Hillsboro Savings and Loan Association opens its new downtown office The association held a public open house with prize drawings at its new office on North Churton Street, the building later known as the Hillsborough Savings Bank. Its 1950 office stayed open as a second location. People: Ira WardSearch the index · DigitalNC: The News of Orange County, April 13, 1961, p. 24
- County planning board recommends rezoning the Blackwood Station tract for Fiber Industries The Orange County Planning Board unanimously recommended rezoning the 450-acre Blackwood Station tract from residential to industrial for a $100 million Fiber Industries plant promising 1,500 jobs. Board member Mark Burnham pressed for stricter performance standards, and commissioners Carl Smith, Ira Ward and Harvey Bennett had backed the Chamber of Commerce's pro-Fiber campaign. People: Carl Smith (Chapel Hill businessman and county commissioner)Search the index · DigitalNC: The Daily Tar Heel, July 24, 1969, p. 1
Places in this person’s story
Buildings, schools, churches and other sites named in the dated events on this page, the most often named first. The map shows them all.
Map tiles © OpenStreetMap contributors. Site locations from the N.C. State Historic Preservation Office survey, Open Orange and OpenStreetMap; town and community pins mark the middle of their mapped buildings.
- Hillsboro Building and Loan (Savings and Loan) Businesses, mills and venues · Hillsborough · 2 events here
Search further
Search other library catalogs and digital collections for more about Ira Ward.
Books about Ira Ward
More catalogs that show where copies are
- Chapel Hill Public Library (opens in a new tab) Public library in Chapel Hill
- Durham County Library (opens in a new tab) Public library next door in Durham
- UNC Libraries (opens in a new tab) University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
- Duke Libraries (opens in a new tab) Duke University, Durham
- NC Cardinal (opens in a new tab) The State Library of North Carolina and public libraries across the state
Photographs, papers, and newspapers
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Research sources
Additional research sources
Other catalogs to search and local organizations that can help.
- Background context: Lefler and Wager, Orange County, 1752-1952 (1953), p. 222 FamilySearch
- Search beyond the index: NC LIVE: prepared search for Ira Ward NC LIVE An advanced search of the state’s shared databases already scoped to Orange County’s places and this subject; edit it freely, and sign in through your North Carolina library to read
- Ask locally: Rebecca B. Wall Local History Collection, Orange County Public Library Rebecca B. Wall Local History Collection (OCPL) The county library’s local-history room at the Main Library in Hillsborough: books, journals, maps, and microfilm of county records from 1752
- Ask locally: Local History Help Hours and request form OCPL Local History Liaison The library’s Local History Liaison helps in person most Mondays, 12 to 3, at the Main Library, or by the online request form
Picture: Ira Albert Ward, Yackety Yack, 1942. Public domain. Yackety Yack, 1942 (University of North Carolina yearbook); via the Internet Archive
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