Theodore “Ted,” Scholnick, of Brookline, passed away of acute non-COVID pneumonia on May 8th, 2021, one day shy of his 80th birthday. He was a loyal and affectionate son to his late parents Rose and Jacob Scholnick, devoted brother to Reeva Scholnick Sagal and brother-in-law to Matthew Sagal, and wildly beloved uncle to Douglas, Peter and Roger Sagal, as well as nieces-by-marriage Lauren, Lisa and Mara, and nine great-nieces and nephews. In death he joins his life partner Linda McIntosh, who passed away in December 2020 after twenty joyful years together.
Ted was admired by generations of Cambridge residents and Harvard students and faculty, as well as his employees, as the proprietor of the much-missed Evergood Market, 1674 Mass Ave, one of last of the independent grocery stores in greater Boston. He inherited the store from his father in 1975 and ran it as a neighborhood institution until he sold it to his manager in 1999, marking exactly fifty years of Scholnick family ownership. Over the years, he sold groceries to many local and visiting luminaries, Nobel Prize winners, Julia Child and Bill Walton, and on at least one occasion the Aga Khan, a deified figure among some Muslims, leading to Ted musing on advertising the store as “Official Grocer to God.” There is no evidence that President Obama shopped there as a student at Harvard Law, but no evidence that he didn’t, so the family is taking the over.
Ted’s enthusiasms included fast cars, fast bicycles, skiing, tennis and finally his great passion, golf, a game which he never defeated but never defeated him. He grew up idolizing Ted Williams, and remained a passionate fan of the Red Sox and other Boston sports teams, and spent the evening of October 27th, 2004 calling his nephews and brother-in-law and friends to marvel at the benevolence of Heaven and Big Papi. In a family that included an PhD engineer, a teacher, a rabbi, a professional humorist, and a lawyer, he was by far the smartest, wisest and funniest of them all.
The greatest years of his life were the final two decades, after he met Linda McIntosh and began their life together. Both her family and his marveled and celebrated how two people so deserving of unconditional love were able to find it at last with each other, and they all take comfort in that they will be interred together, so they may spend eternity as intimately bound as they were in life.
Due to the current health crisis, funeral services are private.
In lieu of flowers, his family and friends suggest donations to his preferred charities, Feeding America, Doctors without Borders and the Greater Boston Foodbank, or, that you simply honor his memory by striving to meet his example of kindness and benevolence.
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