Centrepiece Online | Summer 2006

"We work together"

When John and Maryanne Ward left Kenyon College for Centre, they accomplished a tricky career flip-flop with ease. At Kenyon, Maryanne
had been the academic dean, John the English professor. With their move to Centre, it was she who was in the classroom, teaching humanities and 19th-century British literature.

The role-reversal suited her just fine. “I missed the classroom and was ready to go back to it,” she says.

The Wards’ flexibility helped ease the transition. But they also benefited from their strong sense of shared purpose. “There was that sense of ‘all right, we are the corporation now—not two separate careers—and we work together,’” she says.

And her previous position prepared her well for being the dean’s wife, she thinks. “Because I had been a dean, I was a better ‘Mrs. Dean,’” she says. “I knew when to keep my mouth shut.”

A New York native, she has master’s degrees in English and Russian from the University of Virginia (where the two met), as well as a Ph.D. in English and Russian from the Ohio State University.

The Wards are looking forward to their move to central Maine, where they’ll be closer to their families, including their two daughters, Elizabeth and Anne.

However, she admits that she will miss her colleagues at Centre. “I’ve never worked with better people,” she says. “The English program has been so supportive and has accepted me as a member of the program.
I am very rarely the dean’s wife. The exception is when it’s: ‘I’m going to give John a piece of my mind.’”

On such occasions, she notes, “I always say ‘fine—give him my love. . . "

—T.U.