Karen Holmes Ward addresses viewers during the taping of her last CityLine show, Sept. 25. Holmes Ward’s retirement from her roles as director of public affairs and host and executive producer of CityLine at WCVB marks the end of a 44-year career at the station.

Holmes Ward, who is retiring from her dual roles director of public affairs and host and executive producer of CityLine at WCVB, poses for a portrait in her office, Sept. 25.

When Karen Holmes Ward closed her last “CityLine” broadcast, she opened the studio door to find a hallway packed with co-workers ready to applaud.

It was a day marked by the juggle of the whip-fast pace of taping for broadcast news, an ongoing rainstorm that required regular on-air updates, plus the tangle of emotions that comes with wrapping up a four-decades-long career.

For Holmes Ward, retiring from the stacked roles of the station’s director of public affairs and community service, plus host and executive producer of the award-winning weekly magazine program, means closing the chapter on a trailblazing career.

“It’s nice when you have a job that you love,” Holmes Ward said. “They say, ‘Find a job that you love and figure out how to get paid for it.’ So I did that.”

That job, she said, has been one of building relationships.

“I love connecting people with each other, and I love connecting people with resources here at the station, kind of helping them amplify their message,” Holmes Ward said.

Holmes Ward’s career at WCVB started 44 years ago, when she began as an associate producer for “CityLine.”

Donna Latson Gittens, a former executive at WCVB who hired her into her first role with the station, said she stood out as someone who was quick on her feet, dedicated to the work and always ready for whatever assignment was thrown her way.

At the time, Holmes Ward was one of only a handful of journalists of color working in Boston’s broadcast scene. Sitting in her half-packed office in the station’s Needham headquarters following her final taping — photos, awards and memorabilia still lining her shelves — she ticked off newer journalists of color, colleagues who have since joined WCVB, and said she was proud to see how that landscape has changed over the years.

She arrived at the station after a couple years in radio as a news writer and announcer at WEEI and WILD, but her broadcast reporting chops go back to her youth.

In high school she was part of her school’s media club and in junior high and high school she was the public address announcer.

Her loyalty to WCVB dates to her Boston University days, when she would watch the channel because it was the only station on all night.

Since her start, Latson Gittens said Holmes Ward has “grown just a hell of a lot,” from the young associate producer to veteran host and director. The journalist bid her viewers farewell Sept. 28 in a program that celebrated highlights of a vibrant career, including interviews with political figures like Rev. Louis Farrakhan, Shirley Chisholm and Rev. Jesse Jackson as well as individuals from the arts and culture sphere like Smokey Robinson, Oprah Winfrey and Denzel Washington.

Bill Fine, a former general manager at the station, called Holmes Ward a “tremendous resource” to him during his tenure, as well as to the nonprofits she worked with and helped. Fine and Holmes Ward first worked together as students at Boston University.

“She was one of those department heads who knew what they were doing, who had full command of the city, knew all the people,” Fine said. “I could ask her if she knew anybody at any organization in town and invariably, she did.”

It was a talent that bridged the two realms of her career at WCVB — a combo that Fine called “kind of unique.”

“For somebody to have the entire community affairs challenge as her day-to-day and then, in addition to that, to do a show that really touched on the issues that, you know, faced any large city and the topics and the people,” Fine said. “That’s an unusual thing to see in local television stations, somebody who does all of that.”

But it was a mix he said she pulled off, working equally well in the community with civic leaders and politicians as well as with station staff at WCVB.

That dedication to the community shone through. Rod Kersey, a friend and neighbor, said her engagement spanned everything from telling the stories of Black Boston, to serving as emcee for a variety of community events, to opening her Mission Hill garden for tours during regular garden walks in the neighborhood.

“She just really loves the Mission Hill community,” Kersey said. “She really likes to be engaged and open up her place to folks when there’s something community-wise that’s happening that she can be involved in.”

Through her role as director of public affairs, she led the station’s efforts to build houses with Habitat for Humanity and headed up WCVB’s “Extreme Makeover: My Hometown,” a renovations program that saw the station support remodels at common spaces in the offices of local nonprofits.

She also led the launch of Commonwealth 5, a service the station ran to connect viewers with nonprofits, as well as the station’s fundraising efforts generally — work through which she brought in millions of dollars for some organizations.

“She’s the real deal,” Fine said. “A lot of people will tell you that they are there to help and Karen absolutely is.”

Fine said he recalled former Mayor Thomas M. Menino once referring to WCVB as “Community Values Boston.” While it’s a backronym that he acknowledged isn’t accurate — the “CVB” comes from “Channel Five Boston” with the Roman numeral “V” standing in for the “Five” — he said it’s one that Holmes Ward “really took to heart.”

Throughout her career, the support of her family has propelled her. From her early days as a journalist at Black-owned radio station WILD, when her father, a city councilor in Cleveland, Ohio, got her an official proclamation recognizing her efforts telling the stories of Black Boston — to the end, when her brother and sister, as well as her son, grandson and daughter-in-law, joined her for the taping of her last show.

WCVB has yet to announce who will take over for her as host of “CityLine” and as director of public affairs.

Holmes Ward has also been the recipient of a host of awards for her work, including the Associated Press’sbest public affair show, the NAACP’s Ida B. Wells Barnett Award for women in the media and most recently, the Massachusetts Broadcasters Association 2025 broadcaster of the year.

“You know, who wants to leave a dream job?” Holmes Ward said. “But sometimes it’s time to pass the baton to others.”

In the meantime, she said plans to “sit still” and take time to read the books that have piled up on her to-read list and spend some time in her garden as she lets some of the TV adrenaline run out of her system.

As she does, Kersey said he hopes that she continues to be a presence locally.

“I know she won’t walk away from us,” Kersey said.

And, despite her official retirement, Holmes Ward said she doesn’t plan to disappear from the WCVB world entirely. Over cake at a celebration in the station’s newsroom following her final taping, she warned her colleagues, to laughter, that they should expect to hear from her with nudges on who to talk to and tips on what’s happening in the community.

“I’m not going to disappear,” Holmes Ward said.

“I’m going to try not to be a pain in the butt, but I’ll probably still be calling them.”