Born in Palmerston, Otago, on March 12, 1945, Grant Ward was the eldest child of Marjory (nee Rowlands) and Frank Ward.
The family lived at Karitane where he started school.
The Wards then moved to Roxburgh when the Roxburgh Dam was being built on the Clutha River.
At 9 years old, Grant started his first job at the local cycle shop, building bikes from scratch, including spoking the wheels.
He began secondary school at Roxburgh District High School but his father, who drove buses for New Zealand Railways Road Services, soon had a transfer to Oamaru where Mr Ward attended Waitaki Boys’ High School.
He did not stay long, starting work at GT Gillies Motors, aged 15, as an apprentice diesel mechanic.
He loved the work which included all types of vehicles and had a special interest in tractors and farm machinery.
He then moved to Alexandra in 1966 to work for T R Taylor Ltd as a tractor mechanic.
In 1967 he and Margaret McDonald, a teacher originally from Tapanui, were married in Gore.
The business continued to expand and by 1973 he was set up in what had been the Austin garage at 63 Centennial Ave, complete with a petrol station.
Tractors (mainly Massey Ferguson), farm machinery and cars were all serviced there. A Datsun/Nissan franchise would later be acquired and the Massey Ferguson and machinery side of the business was divested.
Mr Ward was a successful businessman and his ability to meet and exceed sales targets meant he was awarded trips to Japan and to Bali.
He especially enjoyed a challenge — whether it was trucking a tractor through the old Cromwell Gorge to the top of the Crown Range, towing an over-width piece of farm machinery up the side of Lake Hawea to the Dingle, or driving over the Haast Pass and south to Okura when the roads were gravel and the bridges were mere planks over the creeks.
Mr Ward was also a keen jet boater, fisherman, four-wheel-driver, rally and endurance driver. He dabbled in flying and sometimes flew urgently-needed machinery parts to remote farmers.
Mr Ward was a generous, gregarious personality who was always keen to play his part in the community.
He was a parish councillor at St Enoch’s church, a Rotary Paul Harris fellow, a MANZ steward for motor racing and an unofficial search and rescue four-wheel-driver for the police when motorists were lost/stranded on the Old Man Range or elsewhere.
The most astonishing case on the Old Man Range was a couple with a baby, stranded in a campervan in approaching darkness, who had no idea where they were.
He also drove a tanker for the Rural Fire Service.
Grant Ward died on August 9, 2024 aged 79 and is survived by his wife, son Derek (Oamaru), daughter Anna (Port Chalmers) and grandsons, Jamie and Mace. — Ella Scott-Fleming.
