Ward Body Works

D. H. "Dave" Ward founded Ward Body Works in Conway, Arkansas, in 1933 when he "lowered the roof of a wooden bus for Mr. Carl Brady of the Southside Schools". Southside Schools were located about 15 miles north of Conway.[3] A blacksmith by trade, Ward grew his business primarily on body repair of bus bodies in the area.[4] In 1936, he built his first complete school bus body. One of the first manufacturers of the time to use all-metal construction, the first school bus made by Ward Body Works featured removable safety-glass windows and perimeter and center-mounted seating.[4]

In 1939, the company opened a 10,000 square-foot factory in Conway, Arkansas.[4] During World War II, along with supplying buses for the military, Ward built over 1000 different bodies of various types for the GMC CCKW cargo truck.[4]

Following the war, the company became one of the first bus manufacturers to expand outside of the United States, opening a facility in Mexico City in 1947; bus bodies from Conway would be shipped to Mexico to be placed on chassis for use internationally.[4] To expand capacity inside the United States, a second facility was opened in Austin, Texas in 1951.[4][5]

Despite expanding to 100,000 square feet, the original Ward factory in Conway was too small to keep up with demand; the company built an even larger factory outside of the city in 1954; at any given time, 45 bus bodies could be on the 1,500-foot-long assembly line, producing up to 100 complete buses weekly.[5] Later in the 1950s, the company moved beyond its school bus roots, adding mass-transit and sightseeing buses to its product lineup.[5] Due to importation issues, the Ward factory in Mexico was closed in 1954.

In 1956, Ward became both a body manufacturer and an industry supplier, as the company created a subsidiary, C.S. Sash Company, which became a major aluminum window frame manufacturer for school buses.[4][5]

In the 1960s, Ward School Bus Manufacturing, Inc. began a series of updates that would modernize manufacturing and production. To catalog the various state and local regulations affecting school bus specifications, in 1964, company owner Charles Ward set up a computer mainframe (using IBM 360s).[1] In the same year, Ward performed the first independent rollover test on a school bus, discovering issues related to structural integrity.[2] During 1967, the assembly line in the Conway facility was upgraded to a moving assembly line, a first in the bus industry.[2] In 1969, the recommendations from the crash test were published, finding that an inconsistent number of fasteners among manufacturers could lead to poor joint strength.[1] The findings would be used in part to government recommendations for school bus joint strength.[2] Following the 1968 retirement of Dave Ward, Ward Body Works remained a family-owned company, with son Charles Ward handling operations.

During the 1970s, Ward would become one of the largest school bus body manufacturers in the United States, with the company holding a 25% market share in 1973.[6] In 1970, the Austin plant was replaced by an all-new facility in Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania. To expand into small buses, Ward purchased Texas-based manufacturer Coachette in 1973, moving their production into a separate facility in Conway.[5] Additionally, the assembly line at the main Conway facility was upgraded and connected to an IBM 370 mainframe, as the company explored computer-based manufacturing.[2] Coinciding with the new assembly line was the redesigned full-size conventional bus body, dubbed the Ward Volunteer. Aside from a redesigned windshield and the change in chassis suppliers, the Ward Volunteer shares many components with that of the IC Bus CE-Series produced today.

In 1976, Ward produced a prototype for the first full-size school bus with front-wheel drive, but the company was forced to abandon the project before producing the vehicle.