Theodore Lee Lydigsen

Ted was born April 2nd, 1950 to Robert and Grace and grew up in Oak Lawn, Illinois (the Chicago suburbs) with his older sister, Kathy, and younger brother, Paul. In 1968, he graduated from Harold L. Richards High School where he played on the football team, and excelled academically. He attended Carleton College in Northfield, Minnesota where he met his wife Janet (Jan), and obtained a degree in English in 1972. Ted and Jan married December 30th, 1972, and recently celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary.

Ted and Jan moved back to the Chicago area after college. Ted began his career working for everybody’s favorite government organization, which would take him and his family from Chicago to Kansas City to Omaha onto Denver, and finally Cheyenne where he retired after a 30-plus-year career collecting taxes. After Jan retired, Ted and Jan moved to Florida to care for their aging parents, and then returned to Chicago to be closer to other family last year.

Ted loved being outdoors and working with his hands. Starting in college, he took many canoe trips to Quetico, Canada, and the boundary waters area in northern Minnesota. He owned a house on Table Rock Lake in southern Missouri where he enjoyed boating, jet skiing, fishing, and sitting around a fire with a glass of wine. He also owned a series of condominiums in Breckenridge, Colorado, where he enjoyed skiing in the winter with his family. He spent many vacations traveling by car in the West to camp at national parks. Ted spent a lot of his spare time renovating the many houses and condominiums that he owned during his lifetime. This included finishing basements in 4 of his homes, redoing seven kitchens, along with helping his two children with their home improvement projects. During the summers, he spent many hours tending to his sizable vegetable and flower gardens.

Ted was an avid sports fan. He cheered for the Chicago White Sox in baseball (but he did not hate the Cubs), and the KU Jayhawks in college basketball. He began cheering for the Chiefs during his seven years living in Kansas City (he still liked the Bears and talked especially highly of the great ’85 Bears). Ted and Jan kept their Chiefs season tickets after moving from Kansas City and went to several games a year until his disease prevented him from being able to attend. The Chiefs two Super Bowl victories in the last three years brought great joy to him after many years of playoff disappointments.

Ted is survived by his wife Jan, his brother Paul, his sister Kathy Herbig, his two children Laura (Shanti) and Thomas (Jennifer), and his four grandchildren, Calvin, Ruth, Jackson, and Micah.

A memorial will be held on Sunday, April 23, from 10 a.m.-2 p.m. at the Cheney Mansion in Oak Park, Illinois. In lieu of flowers, please make donations to the MSA Coalition

Fond memories and expressions of sympathy may be shared at www.woodlawnchicago.com for the Lydigsen family.