Born in Gisborne, New Zealand in 1935,[1] Ward was raised in rural Poverty Bay.
[2] Initially intending to be a school teacher, Ward attended Victoria University College and Auckland Teachers' College, but he was drawn to the subject of history and graduated Master of Arts with first-class honours from Victoria in 1958.
[2] In 1962 he began doctoral studies at the Australian National University (ANU) on the topic of Anglican missionaries in the Solomon Islands, but he did not settle and subsequently returned to New Zealand where he taught at Mount Roskill Grammar School in Auckland.
[2] In 1967 Ward was appointed as a lecturer at La Trobe University in Melbourne, and taught there until 1987, rising to the rank of reader.
[7] Also in 2009 he was awarded an honorary Doctor of Laws degree by Victoria University of Wellington.