Harold Ward’s impact can hardly be overstated.

An emeritus professor who taught the first environmentally focused courses at Brown from the late 1970s into the early 2000s, Ward also led the Center for Environmental Studies and worked with students to build the Urban Environmental Lab, still a beloved symbol of ingenuity, environmental consciousness and alternative living on campus.

During IBES’ 10th Anniversary Celebration in May, Director Kim Cobb said Ward’s ideas about community partnerships and hands-on learning still resonate in the institute’s mission and vision today. His name and ideals live on, Cobb said, in the new Harold Ward Prize, which recognizes an outstanding ENVS senior whose environmental scholarship makes Rhode Island and the world a better place. Logan Torres ’24, a Brown Presidential Scholar turned master’s student at the Yale School of the Environment, was the inaugural recipient of this year’s prize.

Harold is survived by his wife, Dr. Selma Moss-Ward, two children and dozens of dedicated environmentalists whom he helped shape.