The fact is I thought I'd post an answer rather than a question. I asked this simple question on Mathworks' support areas and never found a straight forward simple answer. I thought I'd post here to try to help someone else.
Based on my experience, NO, it does not need Word Installed to utilize a Word Template when generating a custom report. We built a distributable application that generated a custom report using a Word template, and installed it on a program with no MS-OFFICE files. The report genrator works great.
We are able to open the generated report using LibreOffice, and so fare it looks right. Meaning that we can develop an app where addtional software expenses are not required.
I know I just wanted a simple yes-no answer to what I thought was simple and never found it.
