Jean Leinaala (Phillips) Ward

Jean Leinaala (Phillips) Ward, 88, of Grants Pass, died on Monday, Dec. 24, 2007, at home

Jean was born on October 16, 1919 in Paia, Hawaii on the island of Maui, the daughter of Garnie Effie Rosecrans and William McLeish Phillips. Her father worked as a District Overseer on the Maui Agricultural Co. sugar plantation and the family resided in a plantation house in Keahua in the middle of the sugarcane fields.

She went to Maui High for three years, and one year on the island of Oahu at Punahou School where her mother had graduated years before. Punahou is an old school started by missionaries.

After high school graduation, she attended Armstrong Business College in Berkeley, CA to take their year-long Secretarial course. After graduation she worked at a Personal Finance Co. office, and then returned to Hawaii, where she was employed as secretary to Sam Steinhauser, who purchased all the large equipment for sugar cane plantations for Alexander & Baldwin Ltd., one of the big five in Hawaii.

She later worked as secretary at the Halekulani Hotel on the beach at Waikiki (she typed 140 words a minute!). Beach boys who worked at the hotel taught her how to surfboard. She met her future husband Bill while on the beach. He thought she was someone else. They were married on Maui on April 2, in 1950, at the Makawao Union Church. They returned to Oahu where Bill worked as Credit Manager of the Bank of Hawaii for 17 years. Their two children, David and Deborah, were born on Oahu.

In 1965 Bill took an early retirement, and the family moved to Nelson, New Zealand where they lived for ten years. Bill worked for the New Zealand National Film Unit, while Jean worked for Bowater Motors car company, where she was secretary and the first employee able to take dictation in shorthand. Jean also helped Bill with bird recordings, and sang solos regularly at church, in her beautiful soprano voice. While in New Zealand, Jean volunteered at Braemar Children’s Hospital in Nelson.

In 1975, Bill, Jean, and Debbie returned to the US and settled in Grants Pass. Jean joined the local Hospital Auxiliary and was active until 2006. Jean volunteered over 15,000 hours; she served as treasurer and secretary in various years, edited the Auxiliary newsletter, and ran hospital tours, among many other duties. She was on the board of the Oregon Association of Hospital Auxiliaries for six years.

When the hospital first put in their computers, Jean willingly joined the electronic information age – she spent many hours at the keyboard, entering basic data for the hospital. She also volunteered for the Forest Service, entering wildlife observation data (her managers there were amazed at how fast she could type). Jean and Bill were members of the Siskiyou Audubon Society. They traveled extensively doing bird recordings, as cooperators for the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology – Jean was Bill’s right hand. Jean and Bill were honorary members of the 11th Airborne Association. This US Army Unit rescued Bill from the Los Banos internment camp in the Philippines in 1945, near the end of WWII.

Jean leaves son David D. Ward and his wife Karen, of the Dovedale Valley, New Zealand, daughter Deborah J. Ward of Troutdale, OR, and grandchildren Robin A.D. Ward and Mary E.A. Ward of New Zealand . She leaves a sister, Nellie May Phillips, of Monrovia, CA, and seven nieces and nephews. She was predeceased by brother James M. Phillips.

A memorial service will be held at 2 pm, Friday, January 4th, 2008 at Hull and Hull funeral home, 612 NW “A” Street, Grants Pass OR 97526

Memorial donations may be made to the Three Rivers Hospital Auxiliary Three Rivers Community Hospital 500 SW Ramsey Ave., Grants Pass, OR 97527, or a charity of your choice.

NO GRIEVING MY FRIENDS (by Mary Paetzel 2007)

The bird in the gilded cage has flown.
The golden path of the moon over the marsh is irresistible
and the Swans are calling.....I won’t be too far away.
When the leaves turn golden in autumn.....When the snow begins
to fall......When t