William Ayres Ward (June 10, 1928 – September 13, 1996) was an American Egyptologist.
Born in Chicago, Ward studied at the Butler University in Indianapolis and received his B.A.
Then, he attained a MA in Egyptology at the University of Chicago in 1955 and a PhD in Semitic languages at the Brandeis University in 1958.
From 1986 until his death in 1996, he was a visiting professor at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island.
His main areas of research included the relations between Egypt and Levant, Egyptian-Semitic etymology, as well as scarabs and titles of the Old and Middle Kingdom of Egypt.