Ward of Atlanta Braves Dies at 42

ATLANTA Walter Ward III, director of communications for the Atlanta Braves, died in an Atlanta hospital Sunday after a long battle with cancer, the team said.

Ward, 42, led the public relations, photography and broadcasting and print production departments for the Major League Baseball team, which is owned by Turner Broadcasting System and its parent company, Time Warner.

Ward joined Turner Broadcasting in 1996 as director of public relations for the company’s TNT and TBS networks and worked with Turner Sports on the NBA, Nascar and PGA golf programming on the networks. He joined the Braves in April 2004.

Before joining Turner, he worked with Showtime Networks in Los Angeles. Before that, he was at Baker/Winokur/Ryder Public Relations and Levine Communications, both in Los Angeles.

He held a bachelor’s degree in communications from Wake Forest University.

No replacement has been named. Funeral arrangements had not been finalized Tuesday, the team said.

Donations in his memory can be made to the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center or the University of Texas Medical Center, both in Houston.