Dora Judd Mattoon was born September 13, 1883, in Watertown, Connecticut, to Alfred Huntington Mattoon and Anna Belinda Judd Mattoon. After finishing high school and briefly teaching, she became a successful businesswoman in New York City for several years before she decided, in the early spring of 1911, to pursue missionary work. She made her arrangements quickly and left for Harpoot, Turkey, in October of the same year. By 1912 she was engaged to the treasurer and business agent in Turkey for the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, William Earl Dodge Ward (AC 1906; known as Earl). They married in the United States three years later. Around this time, Dora also informally changed her first name to Doreen.
From 1916 to 1932, the couple lived chiefly in India. Ward occupied a number of positions during this time, evidence of her commitment to service, a constant throughout her life. While in Calcutta from 1916 to 1922, she was Recording Secretary to the Executive Board of the Y.W.C.A. After a furlough in the U.S. from 1922-1923, the Wards returned to India from 1924-1929, this time to Bombay, where Dora Ward served on the Executive Board of the Y.W.C.A. as President of the Women's Council and the Infant Welfare Society and was involved with the Baby Week Exhibition, in addition to working for what is now the Naigon Service Center. After another stay in the U.S. the couple returned to Calcutta from 1930-1932, where Dora Ward served on the National Board and several sub-committees of the Y.W.C.A., volunteered as head of the Infant Welfare Social Center, was on the Executive Board of the Bengal Presidency Council of Women, and organized the Social Service Conference in South India for the National Y.W.C.A.
In 1932, Earl Ward was unexpectedly transferred to Cairo, Egypt. The couple was only there for a few months before he was called back to the U.S. permanently. They first settled in Manchester, New Hampshire, where Dora Ward was President of both the Manchester Women's Club and the Women's Union of the Franklin Street Congregational Church; Trustee of the Boylston Home for Girls; Research Chairman of the Business and Professional Women's Club, and part of the Girl Reserve Committee of the Y.W.C.A. The years between 1936-1942 were spent in Lebanon, New Hampshire, where Ward was Co-chair of Civil Defense; Second Vice-President of the Lebanon Women's Club, and President and co-chair of the interior restoration committee for the First Congregational Church of Lebanon. She did U.S.O. work in 1943 and 1944 in Homestead, Florida, and then Charleston, South Carolina, before returning to Lebanon from 1945-1950 and chairing the committee for Camp Plymouth, a Girl Scout camp.
In 1952, the Wards retired to Amherst, Massachusetts. Dora Ward continued to have an active civic presence and was involved with the League of Women Voters; the Amherst Women's Club; the Amherst Opera Group; the First Church of Amherst, and the Women's Union, as well as serving as an Amherst Town Representative. She died March 31, 1979, two years after her husband.
From the guide to the Dora Judd Mattoon Ward Papers, 1883-1979, 1911-1932, (Amherst College Archives and Special Collections)
