THEODORE HAGG

1950 - 2022

HAGG--Theodore Arthur. Theodore Arthur Hagg of Wurtsboro, NY, passed into history spectacularly on July 13, 2022. He was riding in his chariot (his sixth consecutive blue Jeep Wrangler) on a mission to his castle (the towering historic red brick farmhouse in the foothills of the Catskills he referred to as the Fortress of Solitude) when the huge heart that bestowed love on so many in his life suddenly gave out on him. The ensuing crash was so dramatic that the sole bystander believed there had been an earthquake -- a misunderstanding that seems befitting of the force of nature that was Ted Hagg. He leaves behind his loving wife Leigh Ann Waldvogel, his proud daughter Anne Katherine (Annie) Hagg of New York City, his sisters Dr. Sigrid Hagg and Kathy Fein of Pittsburgh, PA, his stepsons Jeff Patterson of St. Louis, MO, and David Patterson of Holbrook, MA, his extended family across the United States and Sweden and an army of loyal friends, colleagues, and clients. Ted was born on April 13, 1950 in Pittsburgh, the son of Arthur Carl Hagg and Anne Katherine Fitzpatrick. He had an early passion for machines and mathematics, which he shared with his father, a mechanical engineer who had worked on the Manhattan Project. By the time he was six, Ted had already started his first business, Hagg Pet Supply, breeding tropical fish. A voracious student whose heroes included Ludwig Wittgenstein, David Hilbert, the Baal Shem Tov and Sir Isaac Newton, Ted held degrees from Oberlin College (B.A. Mathematics, Phi Beta Kappa), the University of Rochester (M.A. Mathematics), and The Wharton School (M.B.A. Finance). His multifaceted genius is reflected in the diversity of his professional life: he spent 15 years in investment banking on Wall Street, moonlighted as a detective for the Pinkertons, taught college mathematics, summered as a YMCA camp program director, did a brief stint as an intelligence analyst in South America, nearly got assassinated while running a campaign for local public office in Wurtsboro, bought and protected over 250 acres of forest in New York State with a vow never to cut down the trees, was inducted as a peyote shaman into the Huichol Tribe of Central Mexico, became an accomplished lathesman and machinist specializing in the refurbishment of antique tools, apprenticed under a master potter, founded Ableman Management Services through which he acted as financial consigliere for countless individuals and corporations, developed a unique planning methodology with which he empowered people to redesign their futures, and, in what he described as his greatest achievement and joy in life, raised a courageous daughter. Ted was a fanatic about everything he set his mind to and will always be remembered as a mystical wild man with a searing intellect who believed that there were no limits which could not be defeated by will and purpose. To this end, he was able to make many things grow - whether it was a business, a property, a forest, a friendship, a marriage, or a child. He understood how to nurture something so it would be powerful on its own. Although the world is poorer for the loss of this giant of a man, Ted Hagg has equipped all whose lives he touched with the tools to walk in the sacred tracks of the deer: to live, to dream, and to love, with no limits. If you knew Ted, you undoubtedly have stories to share. We'd love to hear them. In lieu of flowers, help us enjoy and celebrate his memory by sending your most colorful recollections to his daughter Annie at: TheodoreAHaggInMemoriam@gmail.com