Obituary of Donna Ward Beard

Donna Ward Beard was our cherished mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother, and the devoted wife of our father Don who left us at Thanksgiving 2022. Mom died at home of natural causes on January 11, 2023, and it was our honor and privilege to surround her with love and let her go. She was 88 years old, and as beautiful to us as she ever was.

We believe Mom knew Dad was no longer at her side. It gives us peace to imagine that he held out his hand to her as the New Year arrived, as he had so often done on many a hiking trail over the decades. Mom decided that the trail mile marker was the right number (68 years), and took his outstretched hand. Dad would have been wearing his sun-faded canvas river hat, and there would have been a shallow section of creek for Mom to hop over to join him, with alpine flowers along the edge, of course – they had a way of choosing the perfect spot, those two.

Donna was born in Denver, CO in January 1935 to Donald Meyers Ward and Gladys Kidder Ward who were also Colorado-born and raised, and whose origins go back to mid-19th century immigrants from Ireland and Nova Scotia who worked the mines of Georgetown and Cripple Creek and the dusty dry farms of the Colorado-Kansas borderlands. Donna’s early childhood was loving and happy, but it was deeply disrupted by World War II.  She endured the loss of the beloved father for whom she was named, a U.S. Army Medical Corps thoracic surgeon who died in 1944 aged thirty-eight in the South Pacific. In the way of separation hardships that befell so many families on the wartime Homefront, Mom’s mother (our Nana) had to put her four young children (ages 9,7,4 and 2) into west Denver’s St. Clara’s Orphanage while she moved out of state to pursue Nurse Anesthetist certification, to be able to support the family on her own. A long two years later, Nana returned to Denver with credential in hand to reclaim her children. When we were kids, Mom never dwelt on those early times of separation from her parents and siblings. Only as we her children became parents ourselves did we come to understand how formative those orphanage years were for Donna, how they bred her stoicism, and why she placed such value on putting down deep roots for us. She was a lifelong welcomer, and her life of service is testament to her compassion for the proverbial sojourner at the door. Mission accomplished, Mom.

After graduating from Cathedral High School in Denver in 1952, Donna attended Loretto Heights College in Lakewood, CO. In 1954, she transferred to Creighton University in Omaha, NE to complete her undergraduate degree in biology. Almost immediately upon arrival at Creighton, she met a bespectacled, outdoorsy fellow from Cheyenne, WY who was a pre-med student  – one Don Beard by name. He helped set up her transfer student class schedule, and in the process made sure to place her in the same biology courses in which he was already registered. Don and Donna were both in their junior year, and just a few weeks apart in age. In what became family lore, Dad maintained that from that moment, Donna was ‘the one.’ It helped that she was from Colorado, since he did not fancy staying in Nebraska past medical school graduation. Mom - always the slightly more reserved of the pair - may have taken a bit longer to see exactly where this confident but somewhat windy Wyoming charm offensive was headed. Since it involved Don Beard, she probably knew early on that it would mean learning to ski.

In 1956 after graduating from Creighton, Mom did a year of post-graduate work as a hospital lab technician at St. Joseph’s School of Medical Technology in Denver, in preparation to be the family breadwinner while Dad was in medical school at Creighton. Don and Donna were engaged at 21, married at 22, became parents at 23, and rounded out the family to ‘the six D’s’ before they were 30. They settled in Fort Collins in 1964, and jumped into making the small city their home.

In her long and rich life, Donna was a match and an equal to Don in her devotion to family and to the greater good of the community. In the early days of Dad’s practice as the solo pediatrician in town, she wielded paintbrush and staple gun to help him build the patient examining tables for his office, she managed calls at home from patients and Poudre Valley Hospital, and she was a full partner with Dad in his many endeavors -- all the while being ever-present in her children’s lives. Donna was a vibrant, intellectual woman who enriched Fort Collins’ civic life for decades with her quiet and practical service on behalf of community-enriching organizations. She held leadership and trustee positions on regional non-profit boards for years, contributing wise and deliberative counsel to the Northern Colorado Community Foundation, the United Way Board of Directors, the Fort Collins Lincoln Center Board of Directors, , the City of Fort Collins Parks & Recreation Board, the Larimer County Medical Auxiliary, and the Fort Collins Council on the Arts and Humanities. She volunteered many hours over many years for the CSU Women’s Association, the Girl Scouts, Parent Advisory Boards of the Poudre School District, the Friends of the Gustafson Gallery at CSU, and the Museum of Art/Fort Collins. A dedicated parishioner of St. Joseph Catholic Parish since 1964, Mom helped start and then faithfully volunteered every week for forty years with the Mary’s Closet clothing ministry – her quiet servant leadership was saluted in 2003 by Catholic Charities Northern of the Archdiocese of Denver.

Donna was an avid tennis player, learning as a teenager on Denver’s City Park courts, and loved the opportunities for regional tournament play and the lasting friendships formed when the 1970s tennis boom reached Fort Collins. She played until her joints said ‘no more’ in her seventies – the same with skiing. She was a lover of the arts, particularly music, and a patron of the Fort Collins Symphony and the Fort Collins Lincoln Center for decades. While hearing the National Anthem would make Dad choke up, for Mom it was the soaring arias of Bellini, Offenbach and Puccini operas. She became renowned for her  skill working in stained glass, teaching classes and creating beautiful windows for private homes as well as churches and the Gardens at Spring Creek in Fort Collins. Like music, she loved glass for its intersection of science, technical prowess, and art.

Donna had a wicked sense of humor (sometimes revealed only if she knew you well), and delighted in clever plays on words – often the more ridiculous, the better. She was a connoisseur of friendships that radiated reciprocity, and she loved her friends profoundly, even when it became difficult to tell you so.

Her husband Don preceded Donna in death by seven weeks. Remaining to cherish our lifetimes with Mom are her children Doreen Beard, Doug Beard, Diane Beard Erickson (Jon), and Dave Beard (Heather). Donna welcomed and delighted in being matriarch and ‘Grand D’ to her nine beloved grandchildren: Tom Simpkins, Anna (Michael) Gilligan; Ryan Beard, Lindsey Beard, Colin Beard; Scott (Chelsea) Erickson; and Emily Beard, Sarah Beard, and Will Beard. On her 88th birthday, about a week before she died, Mom met her first great-grandchild, seven-month-old Everett Erickson. He was charming and full of smiles, and we glimpsed that Mom understood who Everett was - and that the generations were turning, in the way of all lives. Of her own generation, Donna held particularly dear her surviving sister Diana Ward Collins, and the family ties that bound them fast. Dad’s surviving cousin Joan Lee Frankenfield(Sr. Miriam Joanne, CSC) was, in effect, her beloved sister-in-law on the Beard side of the family. Her brother-in-law Wayne Harmon, and her sister-in-law Pat Ward meant the world to her, even as time and distance came to preclude frequent visits.

We are immensely grateful to the ‘Just As Family’ caregivers who helped us look after Mom at home around-the-clock for the past year, for their tenderness and their respect for Mom’s dignity.

Godspeed now to you too, Mom. You welcomed us into this world, and we love and salute you for spreading exemplary kindness, patience, and beauty during your stay in it. We are proud of you beyond expression, and marvel at our unearned good fortune to have had you and Dad as parents, for so long. Thanks for leaving the hallway light on for us, and we will see you in the morning.

A Funeral Mass will take place for Don and Donna Beard together, beginning at 9:45AM on Saturday, April 29, 2023 at St Joseph Catholic Church, 300 W Mountain Ave, followed by a Celebration of Life reception at The Elizabeth Hotel, 111 Chestnut St.

In Lieu of Flowers Memorial gifts in honor of Donna Beard may be made to the Fort Collins Symphony, P.O. Box 1963, Fort Collins, CO 80522.

If you would like to attend this funeral mass virtually, please visit Saint Joseph Catholic Church Youtube Account, or click the link below:

https://www.youtube.com/c/SaintJosephCatholicChurchFC