Theodore "Ted" Ernest Deming

Theodore E. (Ted) Deming, Captain U.S. Coast Guard (ret), passed away at his Arlington home on June 12, 2022, after a long and courageous battle with cancer. He is survived by his devoted wife Roz Ridgway who was at his side throughout and his brother-in-law Robert E. Ridgway and family and friends scattered throughout the country. He was predeceased by his parents, Alma Hopper Beigh and Ernest DeEsting Deming.

Born on July 17, 1937, Captain Deming served 30 years in the US Coast Guard including duty in Viet Nam 1967-1968. He was a volunteer Little League umpire for nearly three decades and in 2005 he umpired at the Junior Little League World Series in Taylor, Michigan.

Ted Deming hailed from Los Angeles, California. He attended George Pepperdine College and then California State University at Los Angeles where he completed his special education (speech therapy and psychology) studies and received a Bachelor of Arts Degree. As he told it, he embarked upon a totally new voyage when he enlisted in the U.S. Coast Guard in January 1960.

During the eight years following his graduation from Officers Candidate School and subsequent appointment to the rank of Ensign on Friday the 13th of May 1960, he saw operational duties at Base Galveston, Texas; with the Captain of the Port San Francisco; as operations officer onboard USCGC AVOYEL (WMEC 150) in Eureka, California. He Served as a Coast Guard Advisor to the US Army in Vietnam and Officer-In-Charge of the Coast Guard Explosives Loading Detachment at Cam Ranh Bay. He was awarded the Bronze Star for “meritorious achievement in ground operations against hostile forces.” In April 1968, he began a two-year assignment as executive officer at Station Los Angeles-Long Beach before reporting as the “Exec” on board USCGC SEBAGO (WHEC 42), homeported in Pensacola, Florida. After decommissioning the cutter in March 1972, he enjoyed the unique “Alaska Experience” in Juneau as Chief of Intelligence and Law Enforcement for the Seventeenth Coast Guard District.

Captain Deming’s assignments in Coast Guard Headquarters began in February 1976 and included duties as: Chief, Maritime Law Enforcement Branch, Office of Operations; Coast Guard Advisor to the Department of State and to several U.S. delegations formed to negotiate various international agreements concerning fisheries and other maritime matters (In the course of which he first met his future wife Rozanne L. Ridgway, a career Foreign Service Officer. He and Roz married in 1983.) Captain Deming served as a Special Assistant to the Chief of Staff and then to the Chief, Office of Command, Control and Communications.

He returned to the sylvan shores of Alaska in 1982 where he assumed the joint command of Coast Guard Group and Base of Ketchikan. In 1984, Captain Deming departed the pristine Alaska lifestyle for the metropolis of Washington, D.C., to inaugurate the Coast Guard Intelligence Coordination Center and serve as its unit’s first commanding officer.

Captain Deming graduated from the Armed Forces Staff College at Norfolk, Virginia, in January 1976, and was the Coast Guard member of the Class of 1980 at the Army War College, Carlisle, Pennsylvania.

The Captain’s medals and awards include the Bronze Star Medal, Meritorious Service Medal (5 awards) and the Coast Guard Commendation Medal (2 awards) and the Army Meritorious Unit Commendation.

There will be a gathering of friends and colleagues from 5:00 p.m. until 7:00 p.m. on Friday, June 17 at Murphy Funeral Home, 4510 Wilson Blvd. Arlington, VA. The burial at St. Paul’s Rock Creek Cemetary will be private.

Memorial gifts may be made to:

Arlington Food Assistance Center, 2708 S. Nelson Street, Arlington, VA 22206, afac.org.

Arlington Little League, P.O. Box 3755, Arlington, VA 22203

U.S. Coast Guard Mutual Assistance, P.O. Box 97261, Washington, D.C. 20077, cgmahq.org