OCEAN PARK – Elisabeth K. Ward, 73, resident of the Pines in Ocean Park and formerly of Old Orchard Beach, passed away at the Gosnell Hospice House in Scarborough on January 8, 2023.

She was born September 4, 1949, in Newark, New Jersey, the daughter of Marion Ward and Max Kronstein. A resident of New York City for the first forty years of her life, she earned her bachelor and master degrees at New York University and was an English and history teacher for grades 7 to 12 at the Barnard School in New York. She pursued post graduate studies at NYU and Oxford University in England. When Barnard School closed, Elisabeth moved to North Conway, New Hampshire and subsequently to Old Orchard Beach, Maine, where she served as a substitute teacher in area schools, volunteered at the York Institute Museum in Saco, and worked summers at Old Orchard Beach's Playland. Elisabeth led a contemplative life and felt close kinship with church convents as an affiliate of Good Shepherd Bay View and St. Mary's Convent in Greenwich NY, as well as serving as a prayer intercessor for the Breakthrough Ministry. Prior to becoming a Catholic in 1995, she was a lay eucharistic minister in the Episcopal Church.

A memorial service will be held 11 AM Friday, April 21 at Dennett Craig and Pate Funeral Home, 365 Maine Street, Saco, with visiting hour at 10 AM.

Memorial donations are suggested for your local animal shelter; for Catholic Charities Maine, P.O. Box 10660, Portland, ME 04104-6060; or for The Community of St. Mary (designate for their Malawi Orphan Education Fund), 242 Cloister Way, Greenwich, NY 12834-7922.