Maurice Ward Widener

Maurice Ward Widener went to be with the Lord on March 14, 2026. He rejoined his wife of 68 years, Sarah Ann Stallings Widener, and is survived by his sons Glenn (Patti) and Stanley (Valerie), grandchildren Daniel, Renée Yap (Edison) and Katherine Collins (Nate) and five great-grandchildren.

Ward was born August 12, 1926 in Corpus Christi, TX. He was the only child of Owen Maston Widener and Herman Levia Ward Widener. His father was a carpenter; his mother was a homemaker and seamstress. He was a tinkerer from a young age, building aircraft models and electronic gadgets from scratch and spare parts, and apprenticing to a radio repairman. His asthma and vision prevented military service in WWII, so he was the first of his extended family to go to college, in 1944, earning an Electrical Engineering degree at the University of Texas at Austin.

Upon graduation from UT he joined General Electric in Schenectady New York, working on radar. After two years in the cold he returned to Texas to work on the B-36 bomber project at Convair in Ft. Worth. Ward returned to UT Austin in 1952 to pursue a Masters Degree in Electrical Engineering, while working at the UT Defense Research Laboratory. At University Avenue Church of Christ he met Sarah while she was an undergraduate, and they were married on August 30, 1955. After they finished their degrees, in 1956 he took a job at IBM then at Ampex, in the California Bay Area, where Glenn and Stanley were born. Times were tough in the early ‘60s, so they returned to Austin in 1962, where Ward worked again for DRL (later Applied Research Laboratory), continuing to his retirement. His work at ARL was in acoustics, primarily developing sonar equipment for the US Navy.

Ward Widener was a musician.

His interest in music led him to the bassoon in high school, which he continued to play in college and as a professional. He played the bassoon in the Austin Symphony Orchestra until his eyesight declined to the point he could not read the music. His family played wind quartets together, with Sarah on flute, Stan on clarinet, Glenn on horn.

Ward Widener was a maker.

He was always engaged in side engineering projects. After his boys were born, he designed, produced and sold a simple warmer for infant milk bottles. He designed and built the house they lived in for 60 years. He turned his photography into a small business, selling prints at local art shows for many years. He combined his knowledge of music, electronics and acoustics to develop an electronic tuner for musical instruments in the 1970s, selling hundreds of units built in his garage shop (with the help of his sons) and learning the secrets of tuning pianos. He spent many hours engineering his vegetable garden.

Ward Widener was committed to Truth.

Ward thought deeply and precisely in engineering, science, and especially his Christian faith, as a life-long member of the Church of Christ. He delighted in pondering big questions at the intersection of theology and science. His Bible study group discussions were legendary! In retirement, he and Sarah traveled the world, forever curious. They especially enjoyed walking where Jesus and his Disciples walked.

But most of all, Ward loved his family.

Sarah was his true love and life-long partner. His boys were everything to him. Ward and Sarah stayed connected to their college University Avenue Church of Christ friends for the rest of their lives. Ward's government research allowed him to take the whole family on a long vacation each year, seeing all the sights around the USA.

A funeral service will be held at 1:00 PM Monday, March 23, at Cook-Walden Forest Oaks, interment and reception following.