I only met Ward once but he was a memorable personality.  Kindest regards to his family.

Another one of the flock gone and will be missed.

Randy Cuberly

I'm very sorry to hear this. I missed meeting Ward on his trip through the PNW some years ago, but remember reading his columns in SN in the late '90's. He seemed like a very nice sorta fella.  Steve

   A few years ago Ward called me and said he was thinning out his squadron and wanted me to have his Wee Duper Zilch. 
I have it, now I wont fly it but will keep it in memory of a great friend and modeler. Rest in peace my friend!
Roger Vizioli

And now Ward...

We might as well get used to the fact that a lot of us will be posting in this type of thread from now on. We are not spring chickens anymore (at least a great number of us are not...), and the reality is that our great and good friends are leaving this existence at an alarming rate. Each of us in turn will be the subject of similar threads here in time.

When I was at Flying Models magazine in the late 1970s and on through the 1980s, I lived in Newton, New Jersey. Along the way I met Ward Van Duzer. Ward, at that time, lived in Lake Hiawatha, New Jersey, which was just Southeast of Newton. Ward just sort of became a comfortable fixture in my life, and we would build, fly, and hang out together a lot.

Ward loved the technology aspects of the event, and even though he never had any illusions of becoming a top competition pilot, he wanted to know how and why stunt models worked. I vividly remember, when Dean Pappas, Richie Tower, Bill Werwage, and I were working on the CL Stunt tuned pipe development, that Ward wanted to use one on his new profile stunter. I suggested that he wait until we had it worked out a bit better, but he insisted and we crafted a pipe to fit the smaller engine in his ship. It took a while for him to get it adjusted correctly, but then it worked great, and the huge smile on his face was proof enough that he was satisfied.

Ward tried his best to be cool about things and had a very sophisticated persona, but, whenever something really neat happened to or for him, or for his friends, he’d become like a giddy little boy full of glee. It was very refreshing. 

And, that’s how I will choose to remember Ward; bright eyes shining and bubbling with glee over some good thing.   

Godspeed old friend - Bob Hunt

My prayers out to Wards family for their and our loss.  I had seen Ward at many places, but like most of the people I have met never got really close.   I guess it will get worse as every time I get close to some one something happens.   Lets hope 2017 is a much better year.

I gave myself a couple days before replying to this one...

Ward was quite an interesting guy... I read his column, long before he moved here and became club-mates and friends. When I first met Ward, I wasn't sure what to think... he had an orators voice, and was one person who didn't need a microphone. When Ward was anywhere on the field telling stories, you knew it! Heh. Over time, I found he had was a stickler for details, and really liked to build as authentic a plane as he could, and really enjoyed building for the OTS and Classic events. I observed that while being a competent flyer, he didn't like the pressure of competition, yet he was a very good builder.

Ward had slowed his flying down a quite a bit as of late, but still had an active interest in building, and coming out to support the club at events to cheer us on. Recently, he had been well on his way to divesting himself of excess modeling stuff, almost like he knew something was coming.

One item I acquired from Ward, was his un-finished DoubleCross. He had tried listing it here in the classifieds when I saw it, and it wasn't getting any bites. He was trying to bundle it with the PA61, and I could tell he didn't want to get stuck with the plane if he broke up the set. I told him that if he sold the plane locally, the engine would surely sell on the forum, and very quickly. He said, you're right, and if you're interested, I'll make you an offer you can't refuse. He did, and I didn't. I could tell he at one time had a keen interest in this plane, and he did a great job of wood selection and building it to the point when I got it.

Something told me to get it finished quick for Ward to be able to see it fly, so I jumped right into it, and within a month or so, I had finished the build, trimmed & clear coated, powered with a fresh PA40 and in the air. I did my best to keep the weight down, and with the help of Wards excellent wood selection, he made it easy for me to hit 56.5 ounces. A stellar weight for a plane based on a large SV kit with the tips trimmed down.

Ward made it to our field and got to witness its first flights. He was pretty stoked to see it go and fly so well. I liked it enough to use it as my weapon of choice for some local contests, and placed well with it a couple times.

I mentioned the DoubleCross to his wife Judy in a conversation the other day after his passing... and she about leveled me when she confirmed my suspicions and told me how pleased it had made Ward, and that whenever he saw me flying DoubleCross at the field, he would go home and tell her about it...How can I even begin to explain...words fail... be good to your friends while you can.

EricV