Page 44 - ACTL_Fall23

ERITAGE OF THE COLLEGE
Judge Thomas John (“T. John”) Ward
43 JOURNAL
Just after midnight, an East Texas client of T. John Ward’s called and told him that he had just killed a man who broke into his house; there was another burglar outside. T. John asked if the client had called the Sheriff. “No,” the client said, “I called you.” T. John called the Harrison County Sheriff and then set off for the client’s house. The house was dark when he got there, and T. John went in shouting to his client, a World War II veteran who was hard of hearing, not to shoot him. Inside, T. John found a young man in his early twenties with a mask and a large knife in his rear pocket who was obviously dead. Several deputies arrived about five minutes later. The client was no-billed by a Harrison County Grand Jury when Sam Baxter, now a Fellow of the College, was serving as District Attorney.
EARLY LIFE
T. John was born in Bonham, Texas (population 7000 in 1950) but his childhood was primarily spent about ten miles south in Bailey, Texas (population 198). T. John’s mother was a school teacher, and his father tenant farmed about a hundred acres of mostly cotton after his successful grocery store and feed business went broke during the depression. T. John had an older sister, Delia, and an older brother, Charles Albert.
When T. John was ten and entering the 6th grade, the Ward family moved to Magnolia, a metropolis of 400 about forty-five miles northwest of Houston. T. John’s Magnolia High School class of 1960 was the largest in school history with twenty-six students; T. John was the valedictorian.
ON TO COLLEGE
Delia’s mother-in-law, Ms. May Hargis, was a widow who lived in Lubbock. Delia determined that T. John was going to Texas Tech and would live with Ms. Hargis his freshman year. When T. John began that year, he had spent his entire life known as John Ward. But he pledged