Lawrence Arthur Ward was five when his family left Persia and returned to the United States and 15 when the family moved to Glendale, California.  He studied at Occidental before attending the University of California, Berkeley, where he received his bachelor’s degree in science.  His ranching career in Chalfant, California, was interrupted by his World War I military service.  While in France he met his future wife, army nurse Katharine Van Orden.  Lawrence honed his masonry skills by building a stone house in Chalfant for his growing family.  Tragically, two of his children died young, and his farming venture suffered as the City of Los Angeles started buying property and water rights in the Owens Valley.  By the 1940s Lawrence was living in the Van Orden’s cabin on the ridge in Brookdale, California, where he worked as a concrete contractor.  He moved with Katharine to Paso Robles following her stroke.  They died within days of each other.