Lesley Adele Ward

Lesley was born in Brooklyn, New York to Winona Viereck and Alfred G Ward on July 30, 1941. She moved around during her childhood, as her father was a career Navy officer who rose to the rank of Four Star Admiral before retiring in 1968. They settled in Norfolk, VA near the Naval base for her high school years at Granby, where she met her husband Tom Winingder. She attended the College of William and Mary, graduating in 1963. That year, she married Tom, and the young couple moved to Boston where Tom attended Harvard Business School. They had their oldest daughter Dana in 1965, and then they moved to Germany for two years while Tom served his active duty time at the Army base in Bad Aibling. Their second daughter Deborah was born there in 1967. They returned to Atlanta, Georgia and their third daughter Jennifer Dale was born in 1970.

Lesley went on to graduate from Georgia State University with a Masters Degree in Counseling and then to obtain a PhD in 1982 in psychology. Lesley was briefly married to David Bottoms- a fellow William and Mary alum- during this time. She taught at several universities in New York and began a private practice in Bronxville NY, and then New York City, where she practiced for 6 years. She returned to Atlanta in 1991 and continued to practice here until her retirement in March of 2020. She was a two-time president of the Georgia Psychological Association, and an active member of the International Club for over 15 years; she greatly enjoyed going on biking trips with the Club. She was a Board Member of Common Cause Georgia for over 10 years, and she was also a Board member of the Emory Center for Ethics for the same amount of time. She remained a very active member of the William and Mary Alumni Association since graduation, often taking trips with that group. She was an active member of Trinity Presbyterian Church since 1992, and participated in the church trips to Haiti to work with the sister school down there. She also traveled with the Institut du Francais to France several times, which she enjoyed greatly. After 9/11, she began regular conversation evenings at her home where guests enjoyed discussing a variety of topics, including global, national, and local issues and events.

Lesley was an avid world traveler and she made friends everywhere she went. She collected art from her travels and her home was a reflection of her love for art, culture and beauty. She was a deeply devoted grandmother to her 9 grandchildren, and made time to see each of them and support them in all their activities. They were her pride and joy, along with her three daughters.

Lesley is preceded in death by her father, Alfred G. Ward, and her mother, Winona Viereck.

She is survived by her sisters Marion Ward and Cindy Welti, her children Dana and Tom Sulger, Deborah and John Peters, and Jennifer Winingder, her grandchildren Anna, Thomas, Lauren and Charlotte Sulger, Arabella, Amelia, and Georgina Peters, and Laila and Moustafa El-Mattrawy.

There is an online memorial page devoted to Lesley website for friends and family to post fond memories and tributes to Lesley, and a memorial photo album. Please visit www.dignitymemorial.com and enter Lesley Ward in the search bar for obituaries.

A Celebration of Life Service for Lesley will take place in the Terrace Gardens at the Atlanta History Center on Sunday, November 29 from 3:30 to 6 PM. If it rains, the service will be in the Grand Overlook Ballroom. Please RSVP to Deborah Peters at Deborah.wpeters@gmail.com. For those who wish to participate virtually, we will be live-streaming the service on Facebook under Jennifer Winingder’s Facebook page. Please wear a mask if you are attending in person.

In lieu of flowers please send donations to Team Lele (Dr. Lesley Ward) at Tackle ALS. Tackle ALS was founded by Tim Green as a fundraising vehicle for the Healey Center for ALS at Mass General and all funds go toward bringing science discoveries to their patients through innovative trial approaches and research. They are currently conducting the first ALS platform trial which fast tracks the path to new ALS therapies by testing multiple treatments at once, reducing the cost of research by 30%, decreasing the trial time by 50% and increasing patient participation by 67%. After pulling up the website, you can search for Team LeLe. www.tackleals.com