In 1977, Dr. Ward moved to British Columbia and worked as an associate for almost a decade in North Vancouver. “I learned a lot from the principal dentist, Dr. George Sakata,” he says. “It was the best associateship I could’ve hoped for.” Then, along with two classmates from dental school, Dr. Rod Clarance and Dr. Scott Stewart, he purchased a practice in Coquitlam, BC, where he would work for 30 years. In 2008, he decided to shift to part-time hours at a practice close to his home in West Vancouver so that he could put more energy into volunteering, teaching and organized dentistry. This past April, Dr. Ward retired after 49 years of continuous practise. “When I officially retired last week, two of my staff had been with me for close to 45 years, almost since I started,” he says. “One of the things that I’m proudest of is my staff and how they stuck with me through thick and thin.” Dr. Ward says that every day of his career in clinical practice, he’d commute to work feeling nervous. “I always felt a little bit of trepidation about trying to meet whatever challenge presented itself chairside with both compassion and technical excellence,” he says. “I care a lot about doing a good job and about my patients and staff. So, there was always some stress to make sure that I met expectations.” However, working with students at the University of British Columbia (UBC) and his roles in organized dentistry don’t cause the same jittery nerves. “That stuff is just fun, in comparison,” he says. Organized dentistry In the early 1980s, Dr. Ward joined the ethics committee of College of Dental Surgeons of British Columbia. “Then I just kept saying ‘yes’ to everything they asked,” he says. In the years that followed, he served on committees and task forces for the college and then for the British Columbia Dental Association (BCDA). He served as president of BCDA for its 2010-11 term. For 10 years, Dr. Ward made presentations at elementary schools about oral health and dental hygiene. “I would use a puppet called Squirt. It had a big set of plastic human-like teeth, and I’d ask a volunteer to brush Squirt’s teeth,” he says. “There was a nozzle in the puppet’s mouth attached to squeeze bottle of water and I’d squirt the volunteer and then all the other kids would want to come up to take a turn as well.” In 2012, Dr. Ward became chair of the BCDA Dental Mentorship Program. “It’s difficult to design a mentorship program that’s effective in initiating long-term relationships where people feel they can actively ask their busy mentors or their mentees for their time and energy,” he says. BCDA’s program provides a list of mentors on its website and a dentist who wants a mentor, no matter what stage in their career they are in, can request a mentor that has expertise or experience that interests them. “Our mentorship program is self-motivated and made up of virtual or in-person meetings organized by the two people. It’s a great way for people to learn about our professional culture,” he says. Dr. Ward has several casual mentees who are internationally trained dentists that he met through Vancouver’s Eastside Dental Clinic where he volunteers. “They would spend time at the clinic, learning how we did things,” he says. “Now they’ve been practising for almost 10 years, but they still call when they have questions or concerns.” Usually, the questions aren’t about the technical part of dentistry, he says, but rather about how to build strong relationships with patients and staff. Dr. Ward has run 26 marathons in Canada and abroad. A fishing trip with Dr. Ward and his brothers. Front row: Gary and Glen (with fish). Bruce (l.) and Brian in the back. CDA President 2025–26 10 | 2025 | Issue 3
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