Joseph L. Ward

Joseph Leo Ward was born November 13, 1923, in Taunton, Massachusetts, and went on to build a distinguished career in the law and in public service in Nevada. He began practicing law in Nevada in the early 1960s, entering a profession he would serve for nearly three decades.

From 1966 to 1969, Ward served as United States Attorney for the District of Nevada. He then went to Washington, D.C., where he took the position of Assistant General Counsel for the Senate Committee on Small Business in the United States Senate. In 1972, he and his family returned to Nevada, where he served a second term as United States Attorney before accepting a presidential appointment to sit as Nevada's first U.S. Chief Magistrate.

Ward retired from federal service in 1988, closing a career defined by service to the courts and to his state. Among his lasting contributions, he was credited with initiating Law Day in Nevada, observed on May 1st. He died June 11, 2005.