Ted’s Adult Life
Ted was a life-long teacher and lover of history. His obituary outlines his career as teacher and administrator. Schools were all in the Pittsburgh school system, including Knoxville, Gladstone H.S., Arsenal H.S. (Lawrenceville), and Reizenstein Middle School (closed in 2005).
Film crews from the local PBS station tagged along with him (and us!) for several days, creating a documentary about a day in the life of a teacher. He had been recognized as Teacher of the Year. This would have been in the late-60s. We also recall he was on local television as part of a panel discussing the 1959 movie Ben-Hur.
Like Elaine (and his dad Ed), he was a bowler. His main league was the Morningside Men’s Bowling League, for which he served as secretary for many years. He also bowled with Klein’s Bowling Alleys in Wilkensburg, lamenting that his average was “only” 175.
Once retired, Ted began volunteering and creating art.
One organization he volunteered for as a docent was The Pittsburgh History & Landmark Foundation, sharing his love of Pittsburgh history. In 1999, he was named recipient of the CNG VITA award, acknowledging Volunteers in the Arts, presented at the School for the Deaf in Edgewood. He also conducted tours of the city for Molly’s Trolleys — the guy with the mic on the trolley!
For many years, he was an active member of the National Association of Secondary School Principals (NASSP), attending conferences in the summer. It was one way to stay in touch with his fellow friends/principals.
Ted also volunteered for the Carnegie Museum of Natural History’s In-School program, teaching in-class modules including dinosaurs, Inuit life and one called “Seasons of the Senecas.” He was happy to be back in classrooms again and commented in his journal that he was pleased to again teach a class at Knoxville Elementary.
He meticulously painted models of planes and soldiers and completed an entire ceramic village meant for under a Christmas tree with a train set. Zoe owns the village now. His main love was ceramic sculpture, especially terra-cotta pipe sculpture, taking classes at the Pittsburgh arts center and at Logan Clay Products in Logan, Ohio with well-known artist Jerry Caplan (professor at Chatham College), and at a ceramic pipe factory in Ohiopyle, PA which turned over its facilities to artists for a week each year. His work was displayed at The Clay Place Gallery in 2001. Our backyard was peopled with his creations, quirky and humorous.
And, oh the journals! Since the 90s, Ted created his “visual” journals, which included long reading lists and book recommendations, bowling league scores and rosters, magazine covers, and tickets from plays and movies. If you wrote him a letter or mailed a card, it might have found its way onto a journal page. He collected many political cartoons and commentary as well as science articles. The last few years reflected his growing despair over what the Trump years wrought. I sure wish he had seen the results of the 2020 election.
While still teaching, he wrote a textbook, an early “self-guidance” history. He also penned many short stories (like his sculptures, quirky) and poems influenced by one of his favorite poetry books, Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám. David had many of these stories formatted and self-published before Ted’s death.
Ted received his Doctor of Arts in History from Carnegie Mellon University, May 1971. He co-wrote a paper on Morningside history with friends Jack Hiler and Jerry McCracken: “Morningside: An Urban Villiage", 1969 and wrote “A Community in Transition: Hazelwood - 1890-1905.” - KS
Ted volunteered at a leatherback turtle reserve in Baja Mexico, helping to track turtles, clean tanks, and move newly-laid eggs to sanctuary from human egg hunters. On two of these trips, he took grandchildren Kailyn and Alex.
Kailyn went with her Papa to work at a Mexican turtle reserve in 1998.
Ted and his mother, Lois. She lived at El Paso Street in her 90s for a couple of years due to her declining health and eventually was moved to the nursing home St. Vincentian de Merillac in Sunnyside for long-term care. He would visit her every day until her death.
Ted Colton Soens, 1960s
1987: Ted at Columbus Traditional (Middle) Academy on the Northside of Pittsburgh
On the way to chaperone a prom, perhaps.
Below are some details about good friends treasured by Ted and Elaine.
Good Friends
Bill Holbrook was one of Ted’s best friends. He was married to Vonnie and died relatively young of cancer. Their children, Kirk and Kyle, were Ted and Elaine’s godchildren. Kyle is a mural artist; Kirk is Director of Univ. of Pitt's Community Engagement Center (2021).
1954: Mom’s best friend from high school was Annie Polack. Sadly, Annie had undiagnosed depression and died young.
One of Ted’s best friends was Bill Holbrook (to left with family). Ted and Elaine were both fond of Ivan (below, right) and Debbie Jirak, who traveled with and arranged many trips with our folks. Dad went on the more rugged trips. Other friends were Jerry and Joan McCracken (who moved to Denver) and Woody Clark. Another good friend was Dan Easley, who moved to Vermont and opened an inn. They also treasured their many neighbors: including Patty (Sweeney) and Steve Mosovsky next door, Jon Peters one door down, Eleanor Kane (two doors down), Tom Fauch and his late wife Debbie on the opposite side of the street.