Shepard, Ward, 1887-

Ward Shepard was born in Hicksville, Ohio, in 1887. He graduated from Harvard College in 1910 and received his master's degree from the Harvard Forest School in 1913. He married Jean Francis Duer Key on 12 October 1918. From 1921 to 1927 Shepard worked for the United States Forest Service as a forest ranger and a forest supervisor in the Western National Forests. While working for the Forest Service, he contributed his own knowledge to the planning of a nation-wide federal forest research program.

In 1932, Ward Shepard was appointed a fellow of the Carl Schurz Memorial Foundation. This afforded him the opportunity to make an extensive study of forestry practices, policies and legislation in central Europe. Upon his return to the United States, in 1933, Shepard became an economic advisor to John Collier, the U.S. Commissioner of Indian Affairs. During his three years with the Bureau of Indian Affairs, Shepard, like Collier, supported a policy of fair treatment of the Indians. He helped draft the Wheeler-Howard Indian Reorganization Act while on the Bureau's staff. Like many others interested in Indian reform, he hoped that this act would change past concepts of Indian administration and develop a new program of Indian land conservation and rehabilitation designed to safeguard Indian lands for Indian agriculture, livestock raising and forestry.

On 1 May 1936, President James B. Conant of Harvard University named Ward Shepard director of the Harvard Forest School. In this capacity, Shepard undertook the strengthening and expansion of forestry education at Harvard. The school trained students in the biological aspects of forestry and also provided knowledge in the more complex economic, legislative and financial areas of forestry for those conservationists interested in implementing programs to end the wholesale liquidation of forests in the United States.

After Shepard completed his work at Harvard, he returned to Washington in 1939 as a special advisor on forest policy for the U.S. Department of Agriculture. In 1940, he rejoined the Office of Indian Affairs as an advisor on natural resources development. He continued to be an outspoken advocate of the Soil Conservation Service. To dramatize the need for preserving farmland, he wrote the book, Food or Famine; The Challenge of Erosion, in 1945.

Towards the end of his life, Shepard became increasingly involved in scientific and philosophical writing. At the time of his death, in 1959, he was working on a book, The Living Whole, which dealt with Darwin and evolutionary theory. Ward Shepard died on his farm in Oakton, Virginia, on 13 September 1959.

From the guide to the Ward Shepard papers, 1909-1959, (Manuscripts and Archives)