User Manual

1
Story by Chris Bahn
Sunday, September 20, 2015
Burt Ward will assure you he is just fine being known as the "Boy Wonder"
nearly 50 years after he played Robin on the TV series Batman.
Ward has reprised the role for TV and film throughout the years. Reruns
have helped make his portrayal of Robin popular with folks who weren't
around for the first run.
Being Robin remains a pretty lucrative way to help pay the bills. When I
recently spoke with Ward he was on his way to a convention, where he said
he could earn "more than $25,000" for a weekend of signing autographs and
chatting about starring alongside Adam West, TV's Batman.
But his passion -- the thing Burt Ward would really like you to think of when
his name comes up -- is caring for dogs. Ward and his wife of 26 years,
Tracy Posner Ward, operate Gentle Giants Rescue and Adoptions in
California, where he said they've fostered more than 15,000 dogs.
They've been caring mostly for large breed dogs the last 21 years, an
endeavor that led them to the development of Gentle Giants Dog Food. Wal-
Mart sells the food in a handful of stores, and Ward said the relationship will
expand "in a very significant way in 2016."
Ward and I discussed the business of being Robin, how to turn a personal
passion into a professional endeavor and the dog food he claims can, in
some cases, triple a pet's life span.
Portions of our chat below have been edited for space.