Lee Taylor Ward

January 31, 1948 - March 26, 2026

Funeral services for Lee Taylor Ward, 78, of Lake Jackson, Texas, will be held at 11:00 a.m. on Thursday, April 2, 2026, at Family Life Church, 220 Lake Road, Lake Jackson, Texas, with Craig Taylor officiating. Visitation will begin at 10:00 a.m. at Family Life Church. Burial will follow at Gulf Prairie Cemetery, 231 Gulf Prairie Road, Jones Creek, Texas.

Lee Taylor Ward was born on January 31, 1948, in Freeport, Texas, to Lee Woodrow Ward and Avis Taylor Ward. Lee grew up in Freeport and graduated from Brazosport High School in 1966, where he played on the state semifinal team his senior year and earned first team honorable mention as a defensive end on the Brazosport Exporters. He and his dear friend Walter Groth anchored the defensive line known as the Baby Bulls - a friendship that lasted a lifetime, with Groth going on to be drafted by the New York Jets and later becoming a fellow cattleman in West Texas. Much of who Lee became on the field was shaped by his defensive line coach, L.Z. Bryan, whose mentorship left a lasting mark on him. Recruited by several programs, Lee turned down a scholarship offer from Texas A&M when they would not allow him to pursue his intended major, and instead accepted a scholarship to the University of Tulsa, where he started at linebacker from his freshman year without redshirting and studied biology. As a young man, Lee also earned the rank of Eagle Scout, spending summers as nature director at Camp Karankawa, where he developed a love of the natural world that never left him. His garage and backyard were a menagerie - hawks, owls, a raccoon, and more snakes than most people would care to count.

After college, Lee completed dive school in California, where on one dive he was pulled from the water with no pulse, the color of ''blue jeans,'' and brought back. He finished the program anyway. He went on to work as an underwater welder and commercial diver for Atlantic Diving Company out of Gloucester, Massachusetts, operating along the Eastern Seaboard from Maine to Annapolis. In the era before OSHA, the work was among the most dangerous imaginable - there were days he went into the water knowing he was stepping in for a diver who hadn't come back up.

He married his high school sweetheart, Emily Perry, in August 1977 at Gulf Prairie Presbyterian Church. They had two children, Lee Perry Ward and Katie Alice Ward. She had his whole heart long before she had his name. Through 15 years of PSP, she never left his side. It was, from first to last, a beautiful love story. After living in New York, Massachusetts, and Maryland, he and Emily returned to Texas and settled into ranching on the Perry ranch on the San Bernard River. From the day he arrived, Lee worked the Perry ranch with a tireless strength and acumen that left no doubt he had earned his place there. Emily's father, Stephen Perry, said as much himself - over coffee at a little cafe, he told those present that he was glad Lee was coming to join him at the San Bernard ranch. Lee ran Braford and Brangus crossbred cattle and was known for his hands - enormous, weathered hands that dug post holes, worked cattle in the chute, and could crack a pecan clean with two fingers. He was an early adopter of solar-powered water wells at a time when most ranchers were still running gasoline engines - Lee got tired of getting up in the middle of the night to deal with one that had quit, and figured there was a better way. His solution was ahead of its time. He loved riding a good horse and was a member of both the Brazoria County Cattlemen's Association and the Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association. Robert Black was a trusted friend and longtime ranch hand who worked alongside Lee for many years - many a day on horseback, building fences through the marsh and a set of cow pens, and doing the hard daily work of running cattle together. Lee couldn't have built the operation without him, and thought of him like family.

Lee and Emily were founding members of Family Life Church in Lake Jackson, where they served as board members and made it a cornerstone of their life together. Lee was deeply respected and admired by the congregation. He was also a member of the Full Gospel Business Men's Fellowship International. He had a running joke that his ministry was hay - every fall festival, he showed up with his trailer loaded, drove it himself, and made sure it happened. He did it every year he could.

Those who knew Lee well knew that beneath the physical toughness was a quiet, steady strength of a different kind. He was first and foremost a protector - of his mother, his wife, his children, and anyone who needed it. He made deep and lasting friendships across every chapter of his life - from the halls of Brazosport High School, to the ranching life he loved, to his church community - friendships that were less like friendships and more like brotherhood. In his final years, Lee lived with PSP - a rare and brutal degenerative neurological disease that, on average, claims its patients within five years. He lived with it for 15. It stole his body. It took nothing else. He never complained - not once - and remained sharp, present, and steady for his family to the very end. His love was unconditional and given freely - to family, to friends, to anyone in his orbit. He was a truth teller and a nurturer in equal measure, and the people around him knew exactly where they stood and that they were cared for. In a crisis, he was the one you wanted in the room.

He was preceded in death by his parents, Lee Woodrow Ward and Avis Taylor Ward, and his brother-in-law, Jimmy C. White.

He is survived by his wife, Emily Ward of Lake Jackson; his son, Lee Perry Ward; his daughter, Katie Alice Ward Tolchin and her husband, Andrew Tolchin; his grandchildren, Ari Ward Tolchin and Audrey Dillon Tolchin; his sister, Dawn White of Colorado Springs, Colorado; his nephew,
Jay White; and his nieces, Ginny White and Betsy White.

Pallbearers will be Will Black, Robert Black, John Coughlin, Josh Crosby, Ryan McKnight, and Jay White.