Max Ward passes on
 

Sad that we have lost Max, but happy we had him! What a leader in our industry!

I passed by him a few times in the Wardair hangar at YYZ while I worked for Worldways, and we used the hangar, but I was never important enough to have something to chat about with him. Then, years ago, Joan Moore asked me to say a eulogy for her husband Roy, the former owner of Worldways. I was one of two people asked to perform this honour. To my surprise and delight, when I was finished, Max stood up from being seated on the audience, and asked to speak a few words. I could not welcome him quickly enough! We had a nice chat after that. My brief passing with Canadian aviation history in person!

I appreciated Max!

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/north...uary-1.5788258

Wardair was part of our family history. Right back when he got the first DC-6B and began charters to Britain, our relatives in Vancouver used it in the first year, and were impressed by the operation. The famed cabin service was i believe jointly devised by his wife Marjorie. Thereafter one or other of the family was with them most years, one way or the other, and we seemed to have used every one of their major types. My own first trip was on the 727. I last delivered one of us to Gatwick, and onto an A310, just a few months before they merged in. A 25 year span I think.

Well done Max, it was a class act !

I had a short stint with Wardair in IT. The week I joined was the week he announced the sale to Canadi>n. Max was a regular in the cafeteria. Everybody was happy to be working with Max.

Max was especially proud that his bush operation never lost a passenger, a rarity in that business.

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I felt extremely fortunate to meet Max a number of times working up in Yellowknife. He'd either park his plane or fuel up at the hangar while coming from or going to his cabin. It was a nice way to close a childhood dream after growing up under the Pearson flight path and seeing his 707's and 747's fly over the house. What amazed me is that he always had time for anyone who wanted to have a chat. Even if he was in a rush, he always had a second for someone, and he treated everyone as a consummate professional, regardless of whether they were working the ramp or stepping out of the cockpit. A number of pilots I've worked with also worked at Wardair, and not a single one of them ever had a bad thing to say about him and shared similar sentiments.

May his legacy and legend live large in those who come after.