Mary Isabella Ward was born on September 19, 1874 in Brookline, Massachusetts to Langdon and Laura (Bliss) Ward. Her father was treasurer of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions for nearly thirty years. She graduated from Newton High School and attended Mount Holyoke College from 1893-1897, receiving a B.A. degree. She was a teacher in Thetford, Vermont in 1897-1898, and in Margaretville, New York from 1898-1900. She then went to Turkey and taught at several schools including the American Collegiate Institute in Izmir, the Gedik Pasha School in Istanbul, and the Girl's Boarding School in Marsovan (Merzifon). She returned to the United States in 1944 when she retired. She died on November 16, 1961 at the age of eighty-seven in Medfield, Massachusetts.