Family creates fund in honor of victim Gorham man killed in Sept. 11 attacks

GORHAM – The family of Stephen Ward, who was killed in the World Trade Center terrorist attacks, has set up a scholarship fund in his memory for Gorham High School athletes.

“We’re just one family that lost one person, but the nation lost 5,000 people,” said Ward’s sister, Susan Moore. “How are these families supposed to celebrate the holidays?”

Ward’s former Gorham High School classmates are hoping to raise money for the scholarship by selling candles. One of his classmates designed the candle, which depicts a rose and bears the words: “September 11, 2001; We remember.”

Ward, who was 33, had just moved to New York in late August to work as an accountant for an international equity and bond trading firm. He worked on the 101st floor of the north World Trade Center tower.

“Stephen Ward is a symbol of what America lost,” said Jan MacLeod, one of his classmates who is helping to sell the candles. “He was one of our best and our brightest.”

A Gorham High and University of Maine graduate, Ward co-captained the high school’s varsity basketball team to its 1986 Western Maine basketball championship.

“I think a lot of people might be looking for gifts that don’t seem trivial or commercial,” Moore said. “For us, the candles and the scholarship are a way to see something good come out of all this. We’re hoping to feel better ourselves by being able to send a Gorham kid to college every year.”

The Stephen Ward memorial candles will be sold at the following Gorham stores: Barrows Greenhouses, ERA Agency 1, Gorham Emporium, McNeally Farms, Phinney Lumber, Bookworm, Dodge Oil, and Maximum Exposure Tanning.

Any other stores interested in ordering and selling the candles can call or e-mail Jan MacLeod at 756-6341 or jan macleod@harvardpilgrim.org.

Direct donations also can be made to: The Stephen G. Ward Memorial Scholarship Fund, c/o Maine Community Fund, P.O. Box 7380, Portland, 04101.