Ted Judson Death, Obituary – Ted Judson died quietly at home this morning. Please pray for Janet and his family. You’ll hear about arrangements later.Ted Judson, beloved father, husband, brother, and friend, died on January 16th at his San Francisco home after a heroic cancer battle. Family surrounded him. Ted’s wife Leigh, his three children Kendall, Sally, and Philo, his granddaughter Louise, and his five brothers Bob, Gil, Hunter, Douglass, and Duncan survive him.
Ted was one of six boys of Robert and Mary Scribner Judson, born in Winnetka, Illinois, on May 28, 1955. Ted was a varsity hockey and lacrosse goalie at The Taft School (1973) and Trinity College (1977). He maintained lasting friendships through class reunions, fly fishing trips, annual Beacon Theatre concerts, and impromptu get-togethers.
His mother was an undergraduate at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management, where he received his MBA. Ted was headed for finance, but after seeing how creative people might make a career, he went to Ketchum Advertising in San Francisco. He then spent 22 years making and marketing video games at Electronic Arts. Ted would joke that he was parents’ greatest nightmare and kids’ favorite adult.
Ted met Anglican clergyman Bishop Robert Morse in 1991. Morse recommended Boris Pasternak’s Doctor Zhivago to Ted. Why? “Because,” responded the bishop, “Zhivago is the Russian word for life.” Ted, you’re right in it.” Ted read Doctor Zhivago and recited its ending poems several times.
He spent 25 years on the St. Thomas governing body and the St. Joseph of Arimathea Foundation board, becoming deeply active in the Bay Area Anglican Church. He arranged the Luce Foundation’s sale of Palo Alto’s St. Anne Chapel.
Ted was part of two firms that survive today, TrustedPeer and Artistory, but his final employment with the Manitou Fund fully embraced his ability to link people and be a meaningful member of a charitable endeavor to give contributions to worthwhile worldwide causes.
He proudly funded San Francisco-area homelessness agencies, food banks, global health programs, and environmental non-profits. His sincere, easygoing nature was admired worldwide.Ted wished to be buried outside his beloved Wausaukee Club, where he learned to fly fish and sail as a youngster and his family would gather every summer to enjoy the lake and woods.
Kendall wrote, “The people he loved were the most valued thing in the world…”He engraved ‘The Luckiest Man’ on a silver cup.He said life hadn’t cheated him till the end.”He cheated life because he was the luckiest man.”
Kendall asks that friends and family remember her dad and “Put on an Allman Brothers song, raise a glass of Mount Gay, and be thankful for the love in your life” until a memorial celebration is announced. The luckiest man.”
