Joan Winifred Maria Ward

Joan was born in Mold, Wales. Her father, Arthur Weeks, a British Army regular, was stationed there before his next posting in Germany. Joan and her sisters spent five years of their young childhood in India until their father retired from the army in 1933.

The family settled in Kent, England, not far from London. Joan’s last year of high school coincided with the first year of World War II.

Starting in 1941, Joan worked at the Air Ministry in London for eight years until she joined Shell Oil Company in 1949 looking for the opportunity to travel. A year later, she was awarded a two-year secretarial contract in Maracaibo, Venezuela. There, she met her husband, Roland, also an English expatriate working for Shell.

They married in England in 1953 and emigrated to Canada with their young daughter, Anne, in 1957. After several years in Toronto (where Doug and Chris were born) and Mont Tremblant, Quebec, the family moved west to Calgary in late 1965.

Joan worked full-time most of her married life and also ran the home with remarkable efficiency. She stayed connected to her extended family abroad and enjoyed doing genealogical research to populate the branches of the family tree.

Joan is survived by her children Anne (Brian), Doug (Janet), and Chris (Linda); grandchildren Nathan (Sarah) and Hailey (Matt); great-grandchildren Odin, Henry, Rex, and Wilder. She was predeceased by her husband Roland, her sisters and their husbands Lilian (Jimmy) and Glenys (Bill), as well as granddaughter Chelsea.

A Celebration of Joan’s Life will be held at Foster’s Garden Chapel, 3220 – 4 Street N.W., Calgary (across from Queen’s Park Cemetery) on Sunday, October 19, 2025, at 10:00 a.m. Interment will follow at Queen’s Park Cemetery.

For those unable to attend, the service will be live streamed. Please join using the link in the "Scheduled Services" section of the webpage, below this obituary.

If friends desire to make a gift in memory of Joan, please consider World Vision, Mustard Seed (Calgary), or your favourite charity.