Background
Ward was born in Jacksonville, Texas. He grew up in East Texas. His mother died when he was four.
Ward was born in Jacksonville, Texas. He grew up in East Texas. His mother died when he was four.
Travis Ward graduated from Louisiana State University with a degree in Petroleum Engineering.
He was the youngest of twelve children. Shortly after Pearl Harbor, Ward volunteered to join the United States Army Air Corps and was commissioned a lieutenant and trained other aviators to fly P-47 and P-51 fighters. Ward continued his flying after an honorable discharge from the army following the Second World War.
In 1943, Ward married Martha Smith.
Multi-millionaire son Michael is the owner of Double Diamond Resorts located in Dallas, Texas. Travis Ward then married Phyllis Townsend of Winona, Mississippi to whom he has been married for twenty-seven years.
Ward has spent most of his career developing oil and gas reserves around the world. His many companies include Travis Ward Enterprises, World Wide Exploration, Ward Energy, Incorporated., Ward Petroleum, Double Diamond Petroleum, Incorporated., Palestine Well Service Company and Pan American Sales Corporation.
He is credited with drilling the "discovery well" in the Fairway James Lime field in east Texas.
Following the first, Ward volunteered to assist in putting out the fires set by Saddam Hussein in the Kuwait oil fields and travelled to the oil fields on two different occasions to render his assistance. In 2009, Ward’s son Michael sued him and several of the trustees for mismanagement that supposedly occurred in the 1970s, 1980s and early 1990s. The courts ruled in favor of the Beneficiaries of the trust and against Travis Ward in a final order issued in October 2015.
The claim by Travis was refuted by Michael and the case never went forward.
The original filing claimed 50% and there was only mention of a distribution after years of the ongoing suite. Travis Ward testified he intended to put any monies received into the children's trust.
Michael denies the existence of this agreement with his father. Following his divorce from Martha Ward, Ward dated actress and singer Debbie Reynolds.