This past weekend, we lost a beloved friend and colleague. William Ward, the author of Traveling Light, crossed the threshold on Sunday at 9:55 a.m. He was at home with his wife Andy and their two daughters, Claire and Rosemary. William was 20 days shy of his sixty-second birthday. He had written his book Traveling Light to chronicle his journey, both inner and outer, since being diagnosed with a brain tumor.

William Ward was a Waldorf class teacher for twenty-five years at Hawthorne Valley School in Harlemville, from 1976 until his sudden retirement in 2005, when the brain tumor was discovered. He had taken three full classes from grades 1 to 8. He was in the fourth grade with his fourth class when he retired to focus on meeting this illness.

William was a native of Michigan. He majored in English literature as an undergraduate at Columbia University and studied elementary education at the Waldorf Institute of Adelphi University, receiving a master's degree there. A lover of theater, William wrote numerous class plays and festival presentations and collaborated in all-school musical productions.

Here is the way William bid farewell in his book:

As we part, here at the edge of Death Valley, I feel like an old prospector handing over a weather-stained chart. “You take this map, sonny. Where I’m goin’ I won’t be needin’ it no more. But while you’re here on the earthly plane, I want you to know there is water, the water of life, deep down, right here. Yonder, atop Solomon’s knob, is the Mother Lode—pay dirt, pure gold, the sun’s tears. The way up is steep. Just keep putting one foot in front of the other. Up on top you can see forever. Goodbye, God bless and good luck!”

William will be sorely missed by everyone who knew this warm, generous man. The funeral will take place in Harlemville, New York, on Thursday, October 9. We have lost a good friend and a master teacher. But we have gained another carrier on the other side of the threshold. We hold William and his family in our thoughts.