Ted F. Wood
March 9, 1910 - April 22, 2006
Obituary
TED F. WOOD 3/9/10 – 4/22/06 Ted F. Wood, passed away peacefully on April 22, 2006, attended by family, friends, and loving care in Seattle, following a brief illness. He is survived by four generations of nieces and nephews, many of them in the Puget Sound area. Most recently he had been a resident in the Assisting Living Apartments of the Vashon Community Care Center on Vashon Island and was a familiar figure around Vashon, who, even at the age of 96, was catching the bus to make trips to the village center. Always a snappy, colorful dresser, sporting an engineer cap, a sport coat, and one of his many bolo ties, he made his rounds with his wheeled cart or hand-crafted cane and sassy, salty wit served up with a grin, endearing himself to all who met him. His intellect made him a formidable cribbage player, always ready for a game. He attributed his full head of white hair to the benefits of applying olive oil – his treatment for almost everything. His sturdy resilience, resourcefulness, and strong independent spirit served him well and kept him strong even in his last days. Francis Albert Teddy Wood was the 5th of 9 children born to George Pratt and May Melsema Wood, the last child to be born in South Dakota before the family moved to the Seattle area in 1913. He was baptized at the South Park Presbyterian Church in Seattle in 1918 and later played on the basketball and football teams of Orillia High School. He eventually found his way into the difficult, dangerous work of the sawmill where he worked for many years and was a proud, long-time member of the Lumber and Sawmill Workers Union. He was still attending an occasional breakfast meeting and just three years from receiving his 70-year member pin. Ted built, almost completely on his own, the home that he and his first wife, Margaret, shared for over thirty years that they called Linden Wood Farm. In addition, to being a skilled carpenter, he and Margaret developed extensive, bounteous gardens providing the corn for big extended family corn roasts and the renowned garlic that was highly sought after by retailers. His ancient, instinctive wisdom and gift for growing things continued all his life as he continued to pore over seed catalogs and fill out orders for seeds and bulbs as well as tend his windowsill garden. As passionate and informed about birds as he was about growing things, he could never pass a certain marsh along the highway on Vashon Island without checking on the resident Redwing Blackbird he had spotted. Following Margaret’s death in 1975, he married Theresa DeWaele Tipton, the widowed sister of one of his brothers-in-law, who was also one of his best friends in his youth. He sold his beloved Lynnwood home and moved to Theresa’s home in Tacoma, their starting point for trips to Hawaii and motor home traveling around the western US. He lived in Tacoma for many years following her death in 1986 and formed enduring friendships with cribbage players in nearby gathering places. With his marriage to Theresa came her son, daughter, and the grandsons and granddaughters who affectionately knew him as Grandpa Ted. At the time of his death, Ted was serving on a committee to fund and build a bus shelter for the highway bus stop serving the Vashon Community Care Center. He was anticipating not only being able to use it for his bus trips to town, but he was also looking forward to having a hand in designing and then “supervising” the construction process. Donations to the Bus Shelter Project in his name can be made c/o Vashon Community Care Center, 15333 Vashon Hwy SW, Vashon, WA 98070 206-567-6132. Commemorative Services will be held Saturday, April 29, at 10 AM, at Bonney-Watson Washington Memorial, 16445 International Blvd, SeaTac, WA 206-242-1787 followed by interment next to Margaret at Acacia Memorial Park in Bothell. There will also be a service at Vashon Community Care Center on Sunday, April 30, at 3 PM.
