Bard was appointed mayor of San Diego on November 30, 1942 after Percy Benbough died in office, and finished out the term in 1943.
He was a pastor in Grand Rapids, Michigan. In 1912 Bard moved to San Diego, where he was pastor of the First Unitarian Church of San Diego for several decades. While pastor he organized several public forums to debate issues of the day.
He did not shirk from controversy, scheduling debates on capital punishment and peace with Germany.
Bard entered politics by being elected to the San Diego City Council in 1918. Politically, Bard was a Democrat.
However, he vacated the office because he was out of the state for more than 30 days without authorized leave. Bard requested leave, but was denied by the City Council.
A councilman called his appointment "a mistake".
After serving as "caretaker" mayor, Bard served other positions, including City Park Commissioner. Throughout his time as Pastor of the First Unitarian Church, San Diego City Councilman, Mayor and City Parks Commissioner, Bard established a reputation as a lightning rod for a variety of the social, religious, civil and political issues of the era. During the late 1920's, 1930's and early 1940’s Bard hosted a continual series of meetings and forums on the canyon terraces behind his Front Street San Diego home.
Bard sent invitations to many National and State leaders as well as citizens across San Diego to meet and argue almost anything of note on the terraces of his home, “Louisiana Barranca Encantada” (The Enchanted Canyon).
In 1939 Bard married Mildred Valley Smith, daughter of William Henry Smith. Bard died 1954 in San Diego.
Bard Hall at the First Unitarian Church is named in honor of him in 1945. People who claim the right to free speech, to free assembly, to free press for themselves, come face to face with the situation of others claiming the same right of liberty—and because the other fellow"s thought differs from his own, one often feels the other"s right ought to be abridged or denied.
.. But, if we are to be good democrats in a democracy, we must be willing to allow to the other fellow the same rights of liberty that we demand for ourselves.
That is especially true in religion.
Hundreds of people would turn out to hear debates on Prohibition, the rise of Nazism, American Isolationism, Government Corruption, the Labor Movement and similar issues of the day.
