James R. Ward

It is with deep sorrow that we announce the passing of James Ward of Perry Hall, MD, who went to be with the Lord on Monday, April 7, 2025, at the age of 83.

James (Jim) Ward was born in Pittsburgh, PA, on August 22, 1941, to the late John William and Gladys Marie (Gunning) Ward.

In addition to his parents, he was predeceased by his two brothers, John (Jack) and Dennis Ward, and his wife of 55 years, Rosemary (Koerner). Jim is survived by his son, James P Ward, and wife, Barbara; his daughter, Kimberly Yackulak and husband, Sean; his grandchildren, Jacqueline Smith and husband Zach; Allyson Olsen and husband Jesse; Matthew, Brandon, Krystal, and Kara Yackulak; and Great-Grandchildren, Madison and Abigail Smith, Benjamin and Elizabeth Olsen plus another one on the way.

After graduating from Wilkinsburg High School in 1959, Jim moved to Maryland, where he met and married Rosemary in 1966. After their wedding, they resided in Front Royal, Virginia, for a few years before moving back to Maryland. For 35 years, they lived in Idlewylde, Maryland, where they raised their family. Then in 2005, they moved to Perry Hall to be closer to their adult children.

Jim spent most of his working years as a field merchandiser for various companies and 20 years with Household Research. Then, for 10+ years, he worked in maintenance at a senior care facility, retiring in 2008. He worked hard to provide for his family and save for retirement.

Jim and Rosemary spent their retirement years traveling and visiting over 55 countries until his health declined in 2020. After his wife’s sudden passing in 2021, Jim moved into Brightview Assisted Living in Perry Hall. His health continued to decline, prompting a move to their Wellspring unit in June 2024 and then Hospice care in August 2024.

Jim and his wife were loyal and active members of St. Pius X Church in Towson and St. Joseph Church in Fullerton.

The family will receive friends from 3:30 to 5:00 p.m. on Monday, April 14, 2025, at Schimunek Funeral Home, 9705 Belair Road, Perry Hall, MD 21236. A celebration of life service will be held at 5:00 p.m., with a light reception to follow.

In lieu of flowers, the family requests that you make donations to your charity of choice in James Ward’s memory.

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The following eulogy was read by Kimberly Yackulak at the Memorial Service for her father James Ward:

As a young child, I was daddy’s little girl. I would often snuggle with him on the sofa, dance with him in the living room, or spend quite time sitting with him on our outdoor swing. I also used to be his little helper as my dad was quite the handyman. My favorite memory as a child though was probably when he would take me on overnight work trips with him. He traveled a lot when I was little, so I loved it when I got to go with him. He would literally sneak me into the hotel so that he wouldn’t have to pay extra for me. Who knows what others thought.

As a teenager, we weren’t as close. My dad was a negative person, and he was often quick to criticize. He wasn’t an overly involved father and he wasn’t the warm & fuzzy type either. You rarely heard him say “I love you” or “I’m proud of you”, but deep down, I knew he did & was. I was the first in my family to graduate from college and I know that was something that he was very proud of. He was even more proud when I graduated with my master’s degree. But then when I married and had kids, I don’t think he was very happy with my decision to quit work. He used to tell everyone that I threw my education away to be a mom. Despite that, I do think he was still very proud of me.

My dad was probably the most frugal person I knew. He was all about saving money. If you owed him a penny, you better make sure you gave it to him. As a teenager, I resented him for it. I had to pay for most of my own things growing up (toiletries, clothing, & school related things). He also would make me put 20% of everything I made into the bank, including my allowance and my first babysitting job of $2/hour. But you know what? That taught me financial responsibility. I wouldn’t be where I am today if it wasn’t for him. It was because of my savings that Sean and I were able to buy a single-family home when we got married. As an adult, I now appreciate his thriftiness and continue to be a saver rather than a spender too.

My dad never earned more than $25K a year yet when he retired, he and my mom traveled the world. They went to 55 countries! That is amazing! Again, I think I resented that in my late teens and early 20s, but somewhere along the way, my perspective on that totally changed. Now I find myself bragging about it, recognizing his hard work and savings. I am so incredibly proud of what my father accomplished. Not many people could have done what he did. And I am so happy that they got to enjoy their retirement and reap the rewards of his hard work. I only wish they could have continued longer.

Not only do Sean and I aspire to travel like my parents did, but to have a long and happy marriage like they did too. My parents were married for 55 years. Sure, they had their ups and downs like everyone, but they were committed and loved each other very much! Sean and I will celebrate 25 years together this May, so we still have 30 years to go!

Growing up, my dad was always very quiet then in his 50’s, he suddenly became an extrovert and would talk your ear off. You could walk into another room, and he would keep talking. His favorite was going to the grocery store, bank or Lowes and talking to the workers. He would be gone for hours at a time and come home knowing their whole life history. And they his.

Besides saving money and clipping coupons, I will remember my dad for…

1-Being a Handyman. He seldom ever hired someone to fix or complete a project around the house. He almost always did it himself. He was very talented in that regard. He had quite the workshop too. Dad’s last 10 years of employment before he retired; he worked in maintenance at 2 senior care facilities. I had the honor of working with him for 8 of those years. I used to enjoy eating lunch together and sharing stories with him.

2- his love of music. As a kid I used to call his music elevator music, but he also loved Broadway musicals. He & my mom always had annual subscriptions to Toby’s dinner theater. His favorite was “Sound of Music”, which is also one of mine. And when there was music, there was usually whistling. My dad was a master whistler. He could whistle any note and any tune. He was really good! Though sometimes it was embarrassing when he did it in public. Towards the end, he lost the ability to whistle, and I will say, I missed it. Music was the one thing he still enjoyed at Brightview though, and we would attend as many music programs together as we could. Even when he was on Hospice at the end, music still brought him joy. My daughter Krystal went in several times to play the guitar and sing for him, and he also received regular visits from the Hospice music therapist. He could have said nothing all week but when she visited, he would manage to sing a few of the words. His favorite song at the end was “You are my sunshine”.

3- his love of food! He didn’t believe in wasting food and always made us clean our plate. He ate pretty much everything & anything (except sauerkraut). We used to call him the human trashcan. We’d often say, “give it to Mikey, he’ll eat anything.” It really saddened me when he had to go on a pureed diet these past couple of years. Dad’s favorite snacks were Cheezits & choc chip cookies. He could eat a whole box of Cheezits in one setting and as far as cookies, mom used to make 100s of cookies at Xmas and he would eat most of them himself. Just because he loved food though didn’t mean he cooked. His cooking consisted of grilling and Sun breakfast. Growing up he was known for his famous corn pancakes.

4- being a grandfather. I will always remember him making a humungous puppet theater for my kids, raking leaves for my boys to jump into; playing pretty, pretty princess with my girls; and doing the part of the 12 drummers drumming every Xmas Eve with my kids!

5- Lastly, his faith. Church was important to dad. He was a Catholic and attended church every Saturday. He and my mom were very involved in their church. They attended St Pius for 35 years until they moved to Perry Hall and started attending St Josephs. Dad was an usher for many years at both. He also helped count money and worked at the chicken dinners. Dad wasn’t one to preach, but his faith was strong, and I know he believed that he would join Jesus in heaven.

The past 3 ½ years have been tough. After my mom passed in fall 2021, dad moved to Brightview. His health had already declined, and he required a lot of assistance. The first 6 months went really well but then he had a major setback after being hospitalized for double pneumonia. The next two years had its challenges. In addition to his physical decline, his mental status declined too. Dad became a very difficult resident to deal with and was inappropriate at times. But I know that can happen when you experience such loss of independence and have dementia. Despite my experience working with dementia residents, it’s still hard seeing your own dad decline like he did and behave the way he did. Sometimes you just have to take it in stride and roll with it. I used to say, “every day was like a box of chocolates- I never knew what I was going to walk into”. Some days he would be sweet as pie and the next grouchy as a bear. Sometimes you just had to find humor in it too. My dad would often confuse tv and photos with reality. Some of my favorite things he said that are worth remembering…

My husband owned Brightview (I wish); he was often trying to get up the hill (don’t know what hill he was talking about but he did live on a couple steep hills); one time a famous country star had lunch with him ( I missed that one); there was this one time where it was raining hotdogs; he thought I had a horse that I kept under the house and my brother had an elephant that he was always riding (pic of him riding an elephant)… My favorites though were when he thought I had a baby on a stage coach (westerns), the time these 2 women residents were turned into chocolate (that was an interesting one, ) and the elaborate ongoing story about him having a girlfriend. Then there were the classic mix ups that often tugged at your heart… the times when he thought my mom died twice, or that I was his wife, or that he didn’t even have a daughter… They were tough ones.

This overall decline prompted a move to the Well Spring dementia unit in June of last year and shortly thereafter, dad went on Hospice. In these last 6 months dad really started to shut down, lose weight and seldom engaged in conversation.

I’m at peace with his passing because I know he had no quality of life, and my faith tells me he is now at peace and reunited with my mom in God’s kingdom. But I don’t know what my days will look like now. Visiting dad had become an intricate part of my daily routine and identity. I visited him pretty much every single weekday. Of course, sometimes he thought months passed between visits and other times he thought I lived there. There were good days and bad. Some days I just sat there next to him in silence and held his hand. I did my best and hope that I made both he and my mom proud. Ironically, I feel like I grew closer to my dad over these past few years. There was a new bond between us that I cannot describe. I think that is what I am going to miss the most.

But I’ll be okay. Because I know dad is watching over me. You’ve heard the saying that cardinals are a sign from a loved one who has passed away? Well, I love birds, and I have a bird feeder on my front window. Usually, it is only home to sparrows and finches, but 3 days after he passed, I had a red cardinal visit me twice. I’m going to take that as a sign that dad is watching over me.

I love you dad, and I miss you already. Give mom a hug for me.

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Written by Jackie Smith & Allyson Olsen (Oldest Grandchildren) and read at PopPops Funeral.

As being the oldest grandkids and there being a big age gap between us and our cousins, we were able to experience a lot of different memories than most.

I remember life before PopPop retired and worked at the nursing homes. I remember the joy of coming to work to help Mommom run her activities for the residents at armacost, but managing to find Poppop to see what was on his list of broken things he had to fix that day and eating lunch with him.

After he worked at the nursing homes he worked at our church, Trinity as the maintenance guy. Every wednesday when we come in, he would be waiting to eat dinner with us. Even though he was still working he always managed to stop and eat with us.

Lots of our memories were made in the yellow house on the hill. Here are a few of our favorites…

Movies in the Den especially Nestor the long eared donkey on repeat and jeopardy

Tea parties & playing games in the enclosed patio,

Sleepovers upstairs in our dads childhood room,

Swinging in the backyard,

Sneaking cookies from the cookie jar after dinner,

One of his favorite sayings was “Hey Boy!”

He loved to play a game and say I’m going to get your nose,

And everyone's favorite memory is playing PopPops favorite game of monopoly.

I remember the first time I bought Jesse over to have dinner with my grandparents and we ended up playing monopoly with Poppop. Hours later we were still playing the game. I thought I'd lost Jesse and he'd never stick around after that night.

I personally am grateful for all the times Poppop helped my dad fix things or lend him tools. When we moved in elementary school, Poppop came over and custom built me shelves for my wall to put all my dolls on. Those shelves are still hanging up on the wall in my parents house.

Poppop was famous for whistling. He would whistle in the car, in the den, in the garage, at work, and probably even in the shower. I thought as I got older I would get away from it, but little did I know my husband is just like him…whistling all the time.

Poppop also loved his newspaper. He had to have his newspaper. His son Jimmy, and daughter in law, Barb worked for the company. If his paper didn’t show up, guess who was getting the call…not the Baltimore Sun. His son and daughter in law. I can’t tell you how many memories I have of us getting him a paper and delivering it to his house. The paper made his day!

He loved coming over to our house to go swimming. It may have taken him 10 solid minutes to go off the diving board (no exaggeration there) but he sure loved it.

Another favorite was Poppop never had a cellphone and always said he didn't need one. Yet, he also was telling Momom he was running to the store and he would be back in 20 minutes. An hour later Mommoms calling us saying she can’t find Jim, if we could check the store. Sure enough he was either at Home depot or the grocery store talking to some random stranger or and employee.

Did you know for my 16th birthday I wanted one thing. Same thing all 16 year olds wanted…I wanted a car. Guess who gave me my first car…. Poppop, yep that’s right he gave me a birthday bag with a little tiny purple hot wheels car, that I still have to this day.

Speaking of cars, one of my favorite memories was when I turned 16 and could get my license. He not only took me to the DMV, but also let me use his car. I was shocked I passed, being with Poppop. If you knew Poppop he always went the speed limit or sometimes even under never over.

I remember he would say bye to us, and leave the house. Then 10 minutes later you see lights outside our house. It was him…still backing up and moving out of the driveway. A 10 minute commute home would be more like 20-30 minutes.

As I got older I didn’t have too many memories, as I spent a year and half overseas and then moved to Minnesota for college for 4+ years, and met my husband. But one memory i'll never forget is him flying out to Minnesota to attend my wedding. I was so grateful that him and MomMom got on a plane and made sure they would be there. But sometimes we all know Poppop had no filter and my mother in law was driving them to the airport the day after our wedding. I remember her telling us, she asked Poppop I wonder if the kids (me and Zach) got any sleep last night, And Poppop blurted out “I sure hope not.”

When we moved back to Maryland I was able to have more memories with them. Like the time they asked my husband to do the service for their 50th vow renewal. Another favorite is the time I told them they were going to be Great-Grandparents. There was something special about being their first Granddaughter and giving them their first Great Granddaughter. I remember when covid hit a few weeks after my daughter was born and they made sure they still wanted to see Madi. I would come over from a distance and sit in their yard so they could see her. They attended my church drive thru ice cream event just so they could see their Great-Granddaughter.

Since Mommoms passing and with pop pops health declining, we made sure to be intentional with visiting and bringing the great grand-babies around. You never knew what you were going to walk into. It may have been a good day or a bad one but one thing was always for sure was that he might not have known his kids or grandkids names but he always remembered his great grandkids. Somehow he was always asking about them. Especially Benji, his nickname for Ben.

Since Poppop entered Brightview we got to make some enjoyable memories with him and his great grandkids, from ice cream socials, to story time, dress up party’s, Christmas parties and even Egg Hunts. One of my favorite events was the tea with Tots at bright view. A party they had for residents and their relatives kids. We took Poppop to it with Madi and Ben and he thought he was getting tea, except there was no tea. It was juice boxes and Chick-fil-A nuggets. He was laughing the whole time and asking where the tea was, that this was a silly party asking what kind of tea party has nuggets.

Only thing I wish we could have done was one more egg hunt. Just a little over a week ago we were planning which day to come up and do another egg hunt in the backyard with the kids. You loved watching them run around.

And lastly, I know something my sister and I will cherish forever was having the honor of being apart of the best club of all. The 22nd club! No matter if you were a boyfriend, a friend, a neighbor, a co-worker, or even someone he met in the grocery store you would soon find out about the 22nd story. For those who don’t know. My sister was born May 22nd, I’m June 22nd, Poppop's Mother our Great Grandma was July 22nd and Poppop was Aug 22nd. He was wishing for a great grand-baby to be born on the 22nd, the closest we got was 2 of them had 22nd due dates.

We knew it was coming but why do we feel so robbed of time? You were both of our last living grandparents and the memories we have will last forever. It breaks my heart knowing you were just a few weeks shy of meeting your 5th great grandkid. I'll be sure to tell them all about how amazing you were. We love you and miss you Poppop!