Albert W. Ward (1906-1998)
MSA SC 3520-13828
Biography:
Born April 15, 1906 in Salisbury, Maryland. Attended Dickinson College, graduated 1928. Married first wife Virginia Phillips (d. 1978). Married second wife Polly Drewry Warfield (d. 1982) in 1981. Died April 27, 1998.
Albert W. Ward was working as an attorney for a Baltimore casualty company when he was appointed to the Maryland State Tax Commission in 1931. He served on the commission until it disbanded in 1959 and the same year became the director of the newly-created Maryland State Department of Assessment and Taxation. He served in that position until his retirement in 1974. During his long tenure as the head of Maryland's property tax assessments department, he oversaw the process of assessing property values and making adjustments in the tax rate on those assessments. In the early 1960s, he was put in charge of regulating hundreds of savings and loan associations, a job that resulted in the revival of several ailing institutions and the demise of other inefficient and corrupt ones. In 1949, Ward was appointed to the Maryland Tax Survey Commission, also known as the Case Commission. The Case Commission was important because it led to the development of the Maryland Tax Court, set up to hear appeals on tax assessment decisions made by state agencies. During his career, Ward earned a reputation for exhibiting exceptional integrity and professionalism.
Called "Ab" by his friends, Ward's hobbies included golf and duck hunting. He was a member of the Society of Colonial Wars, the Sons of the American Revolution, the Maryland Club and the Elkridge Club. He died on Monday, April 27, 1998 of cancer at the Blakehurst retirement community in Towson at the age of 92. He had formerly resided in Roland Park.
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