Hundreds mourn former Bristol Mayor Art Ward at funeral; ‘he put the community above his party’

More than 250 mourners, including six former Bristol mayors, turned out Wednesday morning for the funeral of Art Ward, who served three terms in the city’s top office.

Friends recalled Ward as a community leader, family man and proud Marine Corps veteran from the Vietnam era.

“The great thing about Art is that he put the community above his party,” Mayor Jeff Caggiano said outside St. Gregory Church Wednesday morning. “We had every living previous mayor except one, and that was only because he couldn’t get here.”

Ward died June 29 at 75. His family announced his death on Facebook the next day, saying only that he had died unexpectedly at home.

Although Ward has been out of city politics for years, he was still active in promoting local veterans’ causes and organizations, and took part in this year’s Forestville Memorial Day parade.

His time in city government spanned more than 30 years, starting with eight years on the zoning appeals board and 14 on the city council. He was close to then-Mayor Gerard Couture, who named him as deputy mayor.

Ward, a Democrat, was near the center of the controversial 2005 decision to buy and demolish the failing Bristol Centre Mall; he was reelected that year, but Couture was voted out in favor of Republican Bill Stortz.

Ward became embroiled in a series of political battles during that time. He had become alienated from fellow council Democrats, and then clashed steadily for two years with Stortz, who stripped him of the deputy mayor title as well as his slot on the public works committee.

For a period, Ward wasn’t on speaking terms with Stortz or most council members.

But in 2007, Ward’s political career was revived when he was elected mayor.

He won reelection twice after that, but decided in 2013 to retire.

During his administration, Ward worked to restore the downtown revitalization project that had meandered under Stortz, and also got the city through several difficult fiscal years while maintaining its strong bond rating.

The most dramatic days of his tenure began on Dec. 4, 2010, when he survived a near-death choking accident.

Ward choked and collapsed while eating steak at the Italian Social Club; he went without oxygen for an estimated 5 to 7 minutes.

At Bristol Hospital’s intensive care unit, he was put on a respirator and into a medically induced coma for most of two weeks.

He underwent extensive physical therapy afterward, and slowly returned to work later that winter. He won his last election in the fall of 2011.

“Two words come to mind: Sacrifice and service,” Rev. John Dietrich said during Wednesday’s service.

“When you’re a mayor, you’re about as close to the people as you could possibly be — you live right there with the community. There is a price to be paid,” Dietrich said. “You give up time with family. And how much time did he give to veterans’ associations?”

Dietrich noted that Ward, a lifelong Bristol resident, was a faithful member of the parish as well as a husband, father and grandfather. Friends said public service runs in Ward’s family, and noted that his son, Kevin, is a longtime Bristol police detective.

Nearly a dozen Bristol police officers and commanders attended the funeral, along with several city department heads and community leaders.

Former mayors Ellen Zoppo-Sassu, Mike Werner, John Leone, Frank Nicastro as well as Couture and Stortz attended. Caggiano said former Mayor Ken Cockayne, who now lives in Florida, wasn’t able to get a flight to Connecticut.

“This is the kind of community that Bristol is,” Caggiano said.