Ward Vernon Buzzell of Lexington, South Carolina passed away peacefully at home Thursday afternoon December 13, 2018. He was born and raised in Augusta, Maine, the son of James V. and Ruth Ward Buzzell. He is survived by his son David C. Buzzell of O’Fallon, Missouri; son Jonathan W. Buzzell and his wife Leslie of Lexington, South Carolina; daughter Amy S. Buzzell of Arlington, Virginia; and eight grandchildren.
He was predeceased by his first wife Margaret Phee Buzzell, his second wife Beverly Gray Buzzell, and daughter Margaret E. Buzzell. Ward graduated from Clemson A&M College (later University) in 1953 with a degree in architecture. At Clemson he was a member of the Alphi Phi Omega service fraternity as well as a Distinguished Military Student.
Upon graduation he was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant in the U.S. Army and served in Korea. After his honorable discharge from the Army he held various positions as an architect, specializing in residential architecture with firms in Maine and in Washington D.C. He became Technical Director of the National Association of Homebuilders in 1958 and later was founder and a member of the board of directors of the NAHB Environmental Design Institute.
During the 1960’s he joined developer Kettler Brothers, Inc. to direct all aspects of design for the award-winning 35,000 resident master-planned town of Montgomery Village, Maryland where he also resided and raised his family. Subsequently he became president of Tekmod Corporation in Gaithersburg, Maryland, vice president of Leisure Technology Corporation of Lakewood, New Jersey, and executive vice president of Cheezem Development Corporation in St. Petersburg, Florida. In 1977 he set up Ward V. Buzzell & Associates, a design-build company in the Washington D.C. area.
Ward retired in 1992 whereon he and his wife Beverly moved to the Clemson area where he became an adjunct professor in Clemson’s College of Architecture. He was a mentor and friend to scores of students to whom he passed on his deep appreciation and love for their school. Ward became a lifetime member of IPTAY in 1952 and has been a member of the Clemson University Foundation since its beginning.
After moving to Clemson he was elected to Clemson’s honor society Tiger Brotherhood as well as Clemson’s chapter of Blue Key National Honor Society. He was instrumental in the 2007 Blue Key project to refurbish the James F. Byrnes Room in Clemson’s Cooper Library. In 2009 he was appointed to the President’s Memorial and Chapel Planning Committee, a project he had initiated in 1996; he remained an honorary member of the Clemson Memorial and Chapel committee.
A life-long Christian Scientist, Ward taught Sunday School for 25 consecutive years in the Chevy Chase, Maryland church and in 1985 was instrumental in establishing First Church of Christ, Scientist in Gaithersburg, Maryland. He was also an advisor to the Christian Science Organization at Clemson. The family is planning to hold a memorial service for Ward in Clemson, South Carolina, on December 31, 2018.
At Ward’s request, memorials may be made to fund the Samuel J. Cadden Chapel at Clemson University: Clemson. edu/chapel.
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