Wallace T. Jones Jr.

Born May 1, 1934 in Bartow, FL to Rev. W. Ted and Eloise (Knight) Jones, he was the beloved little brother of Bobbie and Carol. His father ministered to Presbyterian churches in Florida, South Carolina, and North Carolina. Ted grew up throughout the South in a life rich with faith, family, friends, music, and theater. His earliest memory was seeing the Flying Clipper land at Key West when he was three-years old. Teddy had a goat for a pet and at five, wearing a football helmet, would entertaining passing convoys of WWII soldiers training at Ft. Bragg with “goat butting contests”. According to his father, he was adventurous and had a strong sense of self from an early age. Once, after annoying his sister Carol, she shouted, “That’s why nobody likes you!” and he calmly replied, “I like me.” He and Bobbie went off to music camps in the summers where he developed his vocal and trumpet-playing skills. Inspired by his uncle, a renowned architect in Atlanta, he lived with his aunt and uncle for two summers and worked in related jobs until Bobbie invited him to perform in the first year of the out-door, summer-stock-musical-drama Horn in the West in Boone, NC.

His keen intellect led him to Duke University where he studied physics and mathematics and earned his BS in three years. During his last year, traveling to Columbia, SC on a train for spring break, he met a fellow Duke student named Elaine, and immediately “fell in love”. He intended to study architecture at U Penn, but the Army had other plans and drafted him. In his words, “The Army did me a big favor: They put me on a radar system and I loved it, and they sent me to Boston to a Nike Site, and I loved Boston.” Elaine joined Ted and they started their married life in Salem, MA near where he was stationed. His first daughter, Karen, was born just before his discharge and move to Waltham in 1957. Shortly after Audrey was born, they built their home in a neighborhood in Sudbury, Massachusetts where their open home became a harbor for family and their close community of life-long friends.

Ted went to work in military electronics for Sylvania Electric, later GTE, in the anti-ballistic missile field. He earned his MS in electrical engineering from Northeastern University and continued working with government radar and satellite communication systems. During Ted’s most interesting assignment his family relocated to Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands to work on the Altair missile-tracking system. At “Kwaj”, Ted enjoyed sailing, scuba, snorkeling, and shelling. Ted and two friends took a sixty-mile round-trip sail to Namu Atoll on a 25-foot sloop named the Windsong using celestial navigation and lived to write up the adventure. With his family, he travelled to Hawaii, Japan, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Mexico. He produced musicals with Kwajalein Community Theater (KCT), taking primary roles in The Fantastics (Matt), Guys and Dolls (Sky Masterson), and Once Upon a Mattress (Sir Harry). Lovingly nicknamed the “semi-conductor,” he served as Musical Director but especially loved teaching voice to actors without musical experience. The family returned home to Sudbury in 1972 with an extended community of ex-pat friends from Kwaj that remain close to this day.

During the next phase of his life, Ted continued following the recipe for life he learned as a child. Ted and Elaine expanded the house in Sudbury to make it a year-round welcoming home for family and friends. Elaine’s mother came to live with them for the last 6 1/2 years of her life. They purchased a time-share in his sister Bobbie’s hometown of Boone, NC, that became the gathering place for annual Knight-family reunions from 1990 on. He returned to singing with the Masterworks Choral, performing three concerts a year with full orchestra, professional soloists, and tuxedos (“to make us look more civilized”) for the next thirty-nine years. “Ted the Fruit Guy” ran the major fundraiser for the Choral from 1991 to 2010 raising thousands of dollars to support choral music. He was crowned “Citrus King” by the Masterworks Choral in 2009 in thanks. First Parish Unitarian Universalist faith community became his church home and he used his talents to serve in many roles. Two of his favorites were singing with the choir and serving as a youth mentor. He continued travelling with Elaine, family, and various friends to Australia and New Zealand, the Caribbean, Africa on safari, Spain, Puerto-Rico, Germany, the Greek Islands, Crete, and Turkey where they sailed off the coast. Ted retired from GTE Government Systems Project Office as a Technical Manager in 1993 after a 36-year career when he discovered that he wanted more time for all of his interests outside of work. In true Ted style, he started his retirement with a trip to Egypt with a Nile cruise to Luxor and Abu-Simbel. He added volunteer work at the Sudbury food pantry and as a driver for Friends in Service Helping (FISH), taking patients to medical appointments. Most importantly, he was a deeply involved father to Karen and Audrey and later grandfather extraordinaire to his four grandsons. He was always loving and present for milestones large and small, and always willing and delighted to help with any project or just to be together. Ted treasured his family-- loved unconditionally, deeply, and was a constant presence and gift to them.

Ted built an extraordinary, multi-faceted life that drew in everyone who was lucky to know him. His family and friends loved his family stories, poems, rich voice, sense of humor, and fun. He was a talented artist and cartoonist who could find the humor and the story in any situation. He was an accomplished bass who sang in choral groups and community theater. He participated in communities of faith throughout his life, committing finally to the UU where he found profound acceptance of his deep sense of spiritual inquiry and his belief that “. . . the core of my faith is- that we do not know anything with absolute certainty”. Knowing that “change could be subtle or profound,” he was open to the possibility of growth in all things and greeted all experiences as opportunities. He was a life-long student of music, history, space, and the universe as well as a natural teacher and mentor who passed on what he knew. He was a scientist who travelled the world and was guided by the same amazement first experienced when he saw that Flying Clipper land in Key West. In life, even when diagnosed with Parkinsonism, he never lost his sense of gratitude, joy, and wonder about the universe.

He was the beloved husband of 60 years to Elaine L. (Moller) Jones; devoted father of Karen L. Bodenhamer of Miami, FL and Audrey E. Bressler, husband Bruce, of Mashpee, MA and proud grandfather of Christopher A. Bodenhamer (China), Matthew S. Bodenhamer (Dubai), Derek J. Bressler (New York City) and Danny J. Bressler (Boston). He was a loving brother to Roberta Austin of Boone, NC and Carol Hay (deceased) of Clinton, SC. He was the favorite uncle to Dave, Robin, Sam, Fran, Genevieve, and Laura (Austin family); Kathy and Carol (Hay family); Eric and Janis (Knight cousins), and a wonderful friend to all.

A celebration of Ted’s life will be held at First Parish of Sudbury, Saturday, November 26, 2016 at 2 p.m. Celebration will be followed by a reception. We hope you will join us with your favorite stories, songs, photos, and experiences from Ted’s life.

In lieu of flowers, memorial donations may be made to First Parish of Sudbury, 327 Concord Road, Sudbury, MA 01776 or to the Masterworks Choral, P.O. Box 382231, Cambridge, MA 02238.

“When I was young, I thought miracles were something that happened a thousand years ago—

Now- when I look up into the STARS or down into the cells of my body-

I know that miracles are all around us –

We are miracles”

Ted Jones