19?? - 2006
During World War II Ted served as an instructor teaching students to fly. They used a two seat open cockpit airplane where the teacher sat in the back. His favorite story from this era was about one of his prominent students. Even though the student was an excellent pilot he was afraid to do his "solo" flight. The normal procedure for their training was prior to the flight they went through an itinerary that the student was to follow during their flight. This particular student always followed the itinerary to the letter and never asked questions or talked with the instructor during their flight. Ted talked with his CO about what they could do to get this student to solo. The CO had no good ideas. Ted said he had an idea and the CO said "I don't want to know anything about it!" The next time the student was scheduled to fly Ted implemented his plan. He included amongst the other training maneuvers a roll maneuver while flying over the airfield. The student followed the itinerary to a "T" and when the time for the roll came Ted unhooked his safety harness while they were inverted and parachuted to the ground. The student continued the itinerary and was really surprised to see Ted standing there when he taxied to a stop! Ted said that was the only time he ever bailed out of a perfectly good airplane!
For a time after the war, Ted worked in a funeral home. He later became an insurance claims adjuster and he worked in that field until he retired.
He was very active in Ham Radio. So much that in 1964 he served as the President of the Dayton Amateur Radio Association (DARA). He also served as the General Chairman of HamVention during 1973, 1974, 1975 and 1976 - the 22nd, 23rd, 24th and 25th HamVentions! Below is the "Chairman's Welcome" page scanned from the 23rd Dayton HamVention Souvenir Program. He is the only person to have served as General Chairman of four consecutive HamVentions!
Ted was one of the first hams in the Dayton area to have a personally owned repeater on UHF. The antenna was on top of an 80 foot tall tower in his back yard in Vandalia. He encouraged use of his repeater. Before the Union Machine obtained the ability to be heard at it's present level, many IOOK'ers used Ted's machine as a regular place to hang out. He was Audrey Hochwalt's (KC8DTM) first contact (Audrey is Glenn, W8AK's wife). Below is the QSL card that commemorated her first contact "on the air".
Thinking towards the future, about five years ago Ted made arrangements with Glenn, W8AK, to have the repeater moved from his home to a commercial location and Glenn became the trustee of the machine. Ted wanted the machine to go on serving hams in the area after he was gone.
Old Ted will affectionately be remembered as an ornery old cuss who liked to tell stories - mostly true - sometimes bizarre!
Some of the information and materials show above were provided by Glenn, W8AK.