North Penn Football Star, MOVE Survivor Michael 'Birdie Africa' Ward Dies on Cruise Ship

Michael "Birdie Africa" Ward, 41, one of two survivors of the 1985 MOVE bombing in Philadelphia and a standout cornerback and fullback for the North Penn Knights in the early 1990s, drowned accidentally in a hot tub aboard a cruise ship in the Caribbean, per The Inquirer.
Ward, a former sergeant with the Army, was found unconscious in a hot tub on Friday on the Carnival Dream, according to Craig Engelson, of the Brevard County Medical Examiner's Office in Florida. He was celebrating a family cruise and was with his father on board the ship, per The Inquirer.
Ward's father, Andino Ward, is vice president of marketing and operations at Bardissi Enterprises, LLC. Andino Ward changed his son's name to Michael Moses Ward in 1986, per The Inquirer.
Ward lived in Lansdale from 1986 to 1992. After graduation, Ward got married and had a son, and spent time in the Army. He then settled in Newark, Delaware for years, per the article.
MOVE was a radical Philadelphia-based black liberation group who had a compound at 6221 Osage Ave. in Philadelphia. 
After an armed impasse with Philadelphia Police, authorities dropped a bomb from a helicopter on May 13, 1985 on the compound's home, killing 11 people, including five children and the group's leader, John Africa.
Ward, then 13, was one survivor; he ran naked from the burning home. The other survivor was Ramona Africa. Ward lived at the compound with his mother, Rhonda Africa, who was killed in the bombing. 
Philadelphia officials let the entire block of Osage Avenue burn after the bombing, destroying 61 homes. 
According to The Inquirer, Andino and Michael were receiving $1,000 per month for life—and got $840,000 up front—from the City of Philadelphia in a 1991 settlement.