The Rev. George B.P. Ward Jr., deacon

The Rev. George B.P. Ward Jr., an Episcopal deacon who earlier had been a banker, died of complications from multiple myeloma Sept. 26 at his Annapolis home. He was 81.

The son of George B.P. Ward Sr., a lawyer, and Henrietta Ward, a professor at Goucher College, George Byrd Page Ward Jr. was born in Baltimore and raised at Five Oakes, his family’s Owings Mills farm.

He was a 1953 graduate of McDonogh School. He earned a bachelor’s degree from the Johns Hopkins University in 1957 and a law degree from the University of Maryland School of Law in 1959.

Mr. Ward entered an executive training program at the old Maryland National Bank, where he worked in various capacities. At the time of his retirement in the early 1990s, he oversaw the bank’s charitable outreach to various organizations.

Mr. Ward was ordained an Episcopal deacon in 2000, and worked with the sick and the terminally ill, and their families.

Diagnosed in 2001 with the disease that would eventually claim his life, Mr. Ward was initially given two years to live. He persevered and continued his church work until 2014, including traveling many times to Europe.

He had been a firefighter with the Owings Mills Volunteer Fire Company and was the owner of a 1906 American LaFrance fire engine. He also was a collector of model trains and pre-World War II miniature American automobiles.

He was a communicant of All Hallows Episcopal Church in Edgewater, where he served as deacon. Services are private. He is survived by his wife of more than 25 years, the former Janice Wheeler; a son, George B.P. Ward III of Kingston, Jamaica; a daughter, Margaret Anne “Meg” Ward of Roland Park; a stepdaughter, Dr. Nancy Wheeler of Annapolis; a brother, John P. Ward of Owings Mills; and two grandsons. Earlier marriages to the former Amelia Gordon and the former Grace Clark ended in divorce.