>The primary purpose of the application is to generate output and about 60% of it comes from Word automation. It seems logical to create and destroy the instance of Word along with the application session so all processes can access the global reference in the same way. How do I verify that the reference is still a valid Word application? Type() returns 'O' long after Word.quit()

Try checking oWord.Name. Here's what we used in the Automation book:

RETURN VarType(This.oServer)<>"O" OR TYPE("This.oServer.Name")<>"C"

Tamar