Yes, folks, its been one of those days at the office…
Jim Anderson - Insurance Executive
Mike Brady - Architect
Darren Stevens - Advertising Executive
Wilbur Post - Architect
Fred Flintstone - Dinosaur Operator for Slate Sand & Gravel
Ralph Kramden - Bus Driver
So, what did Ward Cleaver do for a living beside read the paper, look swell in a cardigan, and bang the hell out of Barbara Billingsley?
I don’t know why, but the first thought that came to my mind was “architect”. Maybe I’m confusing him with Mr. Brady. In any case, I know he worked with Lumpy’s dad, whatever he did. I remember at least one episode where it showed them in the office together. Insurance, perhaps?
google is your friend
from http://www.litb.com/LITBFAQ.HTM
"Question:
What was Ward Cleaver’s Occupation?
Here again the producers of the show kept Ward’s occupation a secret.
On purpose. So you wouldn’t know."
In an episode I saw today, Ward mentions something about commissions in the office and getting people to sell more (exactly what was not mentioned). So he sells something, and insurance would be one of many possibilities.
They also never said what Ozzie did. And what did the My Three Sons dad do?
The “My Three Sons” dad was an engineer. Not the railroad type.
He could possibly be a pimp or drug dealer. This is why they never mentioned his job on air. Oh, the possibilities. 
Incidentally, anybody recall the episode of SCTV where the cast of Leave it to Beaver reunite for a 25 year anniversary episode. Ward is an alcoholic who eats his Wheaties in the morning with Jack Daniels instead of milk. Beaver shoots his neighbor and winds up going to jail.
I always assumed Ward was an engineer in light of the fact that he was a SeaBee (like my dad, not to mention John “Wedge” Wayne in The Fighting SeaBees!)
[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by slortar *
**
I recall that episode. Joe Flaherty was Ward and John Candy was the Beaver. Beaver shoots Eddy Haskell.
More info at
Ward cleaver was a stock broker.
In the episode where Lumpy wants to join the merchant marine Fred and Ward are talking in Wards office. The certificate on the wall in Wards office reads
STOCK EXCHANGE
CERTIFICATE OF BROKERSHIP
WARD CLEAVERAn aeronautical engineer, IIRC.
Also IIRC, I think Ozzie was supposed to be a bandleader, though it was seldom mentioned. After I grew older and understood the life of a bandleader I began to wonder how Ozzie could have been home all the time.
As long as this zombie has been resurrected…
(NB: He’s eating Weetabix.)
Serial killer, and possibly cult leader.
Seriously, go back and look at how many characters departed from the show in sudden and mysterious ways, with explanations provided by Douglas that wouldn’t hold up to the light of day to an actual investigation, starting with the off-screen death of Steven Douglas’ wife. The abrupt departure from fictional Chicago suburb Bryant Park to North Hollywood just after the suspicious and never-again to be referenced departure of the oldest Douglas son and kidnapping of the neighbor child Ernie just goes with the pattern of controlling, manipulative sociopaths. Although Douglas later takes a “beard” wife and adopts the daughter into this increasingly tenuous family, only the most obtuse viewer can fail to acknowledge that cast members have disappeared with frightening regularity, often to be mentioned rarely, as “building a bridge in Peru”, “In the Army”, if at all.
Ward Cleaver, on the other hand, was just some mid-level executive at a perfectly normal insurance or investment company whose most controversial trait is that he occasionally likes to wear women’s knickers under his pants. What he and the audience didn’t know is what June is up to during the day. Those pearls and the ever-present vacuum were just a sham; June was the high priestess of a coven of hot lesbian witches in the neighborhood. The Beaver is actually a tamer 'Fifties t.v. version of the creepy future stalker kid Glen on Mad Men and will eventually be elected to the US Senate before getting exposed in a Congressional page molestation scandal. And Wally is so obviously, flamingly homosexual that the only people who don’t get it are Ward and Beav.
Stranger
This was examined in detail in an article in the October 1987 issue of Spy magazine, “Situation Tragedy”.
“Bub” disappeared suddenly, said to be visiting his mother in Ireland.
Robbie, Katie’s husband, went on a ‘business trip’ and never returned.
And yes, Starving Artist, Steve Douglas was an aerospace engineer, or as he said during an interview to hire a maid (which comically misunderstood that he was looking for a wife), a “missile engineer”.
Which is curious as Frawley himself (and presumably the character he played) was in his seventies and unlikely to have a living mother. Furthermore, if I recall correctly he ended up eloping with some woman he’d met there and stayed in Ireland despite having no occupation, apparent skill, or assets. “Uncle Charley” conveniently enters from stage right in the same episode to become the caretaker. It was all very suspicious, even at the tender age of eight when I first put it together.
And then there is poor Gilligan, the designated fall guy who was always so curiously placed in a linchpin role to foil the characters’ plans for escape. And who placed him in that role or saw to it that Gilligan would be in a position to appear responsible for failure? Could it be the same character that had the only private hut on the island?
Stranger
Well we know Ward is not a lawyer, 'cause Wally brings a date over and Wally’s dates asks Ward if he is a lawyer and he says, “no.”
Sounds like a one-off prop. Similar to the badge in a Columbo episode that upon close inspections reveals his first name to be “Frank.”
There was an episode where Ward finds his old Seabees trunk. Tells Beaver about being in the Seabees.
I always thought he was an Architect or some kind of construction engineer. It seems unlikely he would have been in the Seabees unless he had construction experience prior to the war.
In other words, he was a beaver cleaver?
You’re thinking of Follow Me, Boys!