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Edward Anderson Obituary
Ted lived a rich, diverse life ranging from his days as a spirited high school soccer player and busboy at Chez Panisse to recognition as an authority on the 16th Century Italian poet, Ludovico Ariosto.
Edward Milton Anderson was born at UCSF's Moffett Hospital on February 16, 1966.
He was raised with his sister, Erika, in one of the oldest homes in Sausalito and graduated from Marin Country Day and The Branson School. Ted attended U.C. Berkeley where he sang with the University Chorus, majored in History and French, and became an ardent, lifelong fan of Cal and the Golden Bears, graduating in 1987. After an M.A. in Italian at Middlebury and a year at Yale where he was named a Bartlett A. Giamatti Scholar, he left academia and worked for four years in New York and Paris managing classical artists for Columbia Artists Management and Organisation Internationale Artistique.
As a gifted musician and linguist, fluent in French and Italian and proficient in German and Spanish, he was a popular, successful agent for many international concert artists. But after four years in the hurly-burly of artist management Ted decided to return to academia and pursue his passion for Italian language and culture. He was soon accepted at Cambridge University in England where he was elected President of his college, St. Johns, and received his doctorate in 2007.
Ted is the former director of the Art Song and Vocal Chamber Performance Programs at the Aspen Music Festival, and since his appointment at Rice, has collaborated with the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome and the Accademia Filarmonica Romana. His book, Ariosto, Opera and the Seventeenth Century - Evolution in the Poetics of Delight, is being published in English in four volumes by Olschki, Italy's leading publisher of scholarly works. The Department of Humanities at Rice University will honor Ted in a ceremony this February.
But for all his achievements as a scholar and musician, Ted will be remembered best by his family as a charming, wonderfully amusing, loving son and brother who struggled bravely to overcome the mental illness that eventually took his life.
Ted is survived by his sister, Erika Anderson-Embley, of Novato, and by his parents, Jola and John Anderson of Sausalito. The family is planning a gathering for family and friends at The San Francisco Film Centre in the Presidio on Saturday, February 16, 2013, at 2:00 pm. In lieu of flowers, please consider a donation in Ted's memory to the Department of Music at the University of California, Berkeley, or to the Edible School Yard Project, Berkeley, California.
To plant trees in memory, please visit the Sympathy Store.
Memories and Condolences
for Edward Anderson
Sponsored by Kevin Andrew Richardson.
Manuela
January 25, 2024
Ted, anima vagula blandula
Jamie Constable
March 19, 2022
I´m not sure why, but I thought of you today Ted - and I remembered this page. It´s been 19 years since I met you, and probably close to 15 since I saw you last. Even so, it still saddens me greatly to think of your passing, but makes me smile to remember our time at St John´s. You are, and shall remain, deeply missed.
Piero Soria
January 23, 2022
Saw last year I sent you texts two months before the anniversary of your passing and I did it again this year without realizing it, same timing. Still miss ya friend.
Piero Soria
January 23, 2021
Sent you a text a couple of months back knowing you wouldn't get it but maybe you would. Miss you greatly my friend.
February 16, 2017
Just recently I learned that Ted passed away and I am sad to know it. I still have vivid memories of him as the 23 yrs old boy, intelligent, full of interests, passionate, handsome, funny and smart as anybody else I've met in my life. I am very grateful to him, together we had a fabulous time. He let me experience unforgettable emotions. Thanks dear Ted, rest in peace.
Silvia Paoletti, Firenze, Italia
Manuela Rossi
February 1, 2017
Sono passati quattro anni da quando siamo rimasti senza di te. Durante i tuoi soggiorni qui hai riempito le nostre serate, ma - soprattutto - i nostri cuori.
"Io credea e credo, e creder credo il vero"
Blake Turner
November 26, 2014
Ted was the most amazing, smart, and kind man I have ever met. He was a truly great soul.
Simon Malloch
September 10, 2014
I can do little more than second the sentiments of my good friend Jamie. I knew Ted over several years at St John's college Cambridge, but it was really only in my last that I got to know him well. It's no understatement to say that the graduates were extraordinarily lucky to have such a man of the world organising their social lives during his year as SBR president. He brought energy and charisma to the position, and was a true role model for the men. On a personal note, I am truly grateful for the time Ted took to talk when I needed a good listener and a good adviser.
Jamie Constable
September 3, 2014
I knew Ted at St John's college in Cambridge, UK. I didn't know him for long, but he was someone I, and my fellow students, genuinely admired and looked up to. He was much loved around the graduate community at John's and was a splendid president of the grads. Ted was a lovely man - charismatic, boisterous but gentle and always able to make time to help his peers and offer them support. I will remember him for his charm, words of advice, refusal to accept his advancing years on the football pitch and for having a genuinely good soul.
Rest in peace, Ted.
Andrea Soricelli Barbuzza
May 18, 2014
I am shocked and saddened to hear of Ted's passing. I so regret not keeping in touch after our time studying in Florence through Middlebury. Ted introduced me to radicchio and balsamic vinegar for the first time when my roommate and I climbed the gazillion steps up to his apartment overlooking the Arno. We joked about Italian bureaucracy as he obtained phone service 10 months into his 12 month stay. He was so intelligent yet so much fun. My prayers to his family.
Kevin Richardson
December 15, 2013
Ted was a wonderful guy. I knew Ted through the connection his parents had to my mother's circle of friends in Sausalito. Both he and his sister were a tremendous inspiration to me - they were smart, interested in life, warm, and with a brilliant sense of humor. Ted once helped me paint a mural for the opening of an Italian restaurant near the SF zoo - in one day. We had a hoot, covered with paint, exhausted - we laughed all the way back to Marin with a great sense of accomplishment. Ted was a deeply smart and feeling person. I was sorry to see this page closed for comment (as I just learned of his passing), so I thought I'd better reopen it. For you Ted.
Chase LeCroy
February 28, 2013
I first met Ted freshman year. I was a student in his intro Humanities course, and he was the ideal professor: enthusiastic, an expert, and engaging. He looked the part perfectly, with his classy attire and faithful dog. My classmates and I will never forget the night he rented a school shuttle to drive us to his home, where he cooked a delicious meal and organized a classical concert that related to the material we were reading in class. Ted's openness that night touched us all. He encouraged me to apply for a fellowship to write a hefty research thesis on the early Italian Renaissance, something I would never have done as a student focused on the sciences. Needless to say, I was intimidated by the project. Ted provided attentive and valuable guidance through the whole process despite the fact that he was on vacation hiking the Alps and I was in Argentina for the summer. His mantra “writing is thinking” distills my approach to this day. He inspired me to expand my boundaries, making me a better student and helping to hone my writing and research abilities. The experience will stay with me as something indispensable to draw on in the future.
Through the years I would see Ted on campus, always with his dog, and we would find time to catch up. I came back to visit after graduation and ran into Ted at Valhalla. I am so grateful we had the chance to trade stories one more time. As a professor and friend he was an inspiring presence, one who made you feel anything is possible in life if only you go out and get it.
David
February 22, 2013
Tall and tan and young and handsome
The boy from Sausalito went travelling
And everyone he met, he made them laugh.
Oh, how I miss him so badly,
All of us feeling so sadly,
But when we think of the love that he gave,
Can't help but smile and be brave.
Martine Felt
February 21, 2013
I am not one of those intellectually gifted friends of Teddy, but he never once made me feel inferior or less important for my views. I will always remember Ted for his love for my brother and how he helped Michael in his end of days. The two were more linked than any biological brothers could ever hope to be. The hole created by my brother's loss has just been increased two-fold.
Nancy Barr
February 19, 2013
Dear, handsome Ted. Years into our friendship, I was so pleased to glimpse his resemblance to the young Marlon Brando. What a crushing loss to all who knew and loved him. That intense gaze, that smile, that uproarious laugh, those bitten nails. His courteousness: always a thank you note on engraved stationery. How domestic he was: a nester, despite his many moves. A minimalist, with impeccable taste. So funny, so observant. Thank you for all the fun we had...with David and Susanne and Ben, and later, with our three children. Our world will never be the same without you in it.
February 19, 2013
Let us pause for a moment and pay homage to this nobly gifted and impish charmer who cut an incandescent and luminous swath through our lives. He held in contempt much of the pomposities, vainglorious posturing and pretensions which appear to be an ineluctable fact of our social existence. Ted was a word-smith of stunning ability, with a point of view all his own, full of erudition, humor and self-effacement. There was always a freshness of thought, an idea, behind the words. But, even more: the words themselves pursued their own poetic logic.
He frolicked around in the past with the ease of a dolphin. For him a dusty library of ancient manuscripts languishing in an Italian backwash was just another refreshing pond to dart through, gathering up souvenirs of forgotten poets and their abandoned arias, tossing them all back up into an intense Tuscan sunlight. Mere scholars rarely do that.
Of course Ted ran hard against the grain also, but in a creative and usually benign way; the victims of his impish duplicity probably never discovered that they were engaging with a spy, an imposture, and agent prococateur, for there can be no doubt that this was also one of the many roles he played so very well. In a culture which has collectively deluded itself to believe that they, its members, are all magically non-conforming a la James Dean or Marlon Brando, slouching about in their inevitably pre-distressed blue jeans, mobile device glued into the palm of their hand, Teddy was in fact the non-conformist par excellence. He broke the rules suddenly, bow tie firmly in place, hair slicked down. Suddenly and often. He was ill at ease with the conventional, the habitual, the ordinary. But he managed to trump most of these with the facile skill of a stage magician, pulling money out of nowhere, sawing someone painlessly in two, and so forth. His slight-of-hand in social environments was truly awesome and his way with people utterly infallible. The English language really doesn't have a very suitable word for this type, but the Germans do, and it's "Schauspieler", someone who plays in a show, an actor, offstage as well as on. This was Ted. It was something he was born with but also a talent that he honed through his skill with languages, love of a variety of cultures and refusal to recognize borders or limits. He will never be duplicated and he will be missed. But he leaves a legacy of vivid and unforgettable memories.
San Francisco poet Kenneth Patchen once posed the question "Have you wondered why all the windows in heaven were broken?" Well, no, Mr. Patchen, we really never did wonder why before. But now, we do wonder. But at least we know who broke some of them and it was Teddy Anderson.
He was a kaleidoscope through which so much brilliance, joy and light flowed. And we - the living - must remember that, for us, forgiveness, understanding and affection for each other, as imperfect as we are, is the charge which is handed to us now. This is the best way for us to carry forward our loving memory of Ted.
Ted and Lillian Williams
Bernard and Maria Teresa Brown
February 17, 2013
Ted met my son while they were both post graduates at St John's College, Cambridge and they became great friends. We met Ted several times when he came to Rome for several months and stayed in our daughter's flat.
We were always impressed with his charm and intelligence, his open character and wide interests, his deep knowledge of the musical world and Italian literature, as well as his excellent command of the Italian language.
He made many friends in Rome, all of whom remember him very warmly, and he participated in the musical and cultural life of the city with passion and dedication. We remember with great pleasure how he made a fascinating and erudite introduction to a performance of the first opera written by a woman, La Liberazione di Ruggiero" by Francesca Caccini dating from 1625, in which we participated.
This was just one example of how he was always available to put his knowledge at the service of others with a friendly and sweet smile and demonstrative enthusiasm.
He is greatly missed.
Claire O'Connor
February 15, 2013
Ted was my humanities professor during my freshman year at Rice. Some of my favorite and most vivid memories of my time at Rice come from his class. He was a sincere and passionate man who truly cared about his students. Whenever I ran into him, he always remembered my name and was curious about what I was up to. I so enjoyed the evening he hosted our class at his beautiful home. He cooked a delicious dinner for us, and his partner, with a few of her students, gave an extraordinary opera performance. Definitely an evening to remember!
I was so sad and shocked to hear the news of his passing. I can so easily picture him walking the quad with his wonderful, faithful dog. Please know that he was well loved at Rice (and, by the looks of this guestbook, everywhere else!).
Amy Denebeim
February 15, 2013
I am so very sorry and saddened to hear of the passing of dear Teddy. So many happy memories, running around the streets of San Francisco with Erika and her little brother, sipping champagne and eating french fries with mayo... we were so sophisticated in those days!! The lovely, handsome, clever Teddy who could charm the birds right out of the trees!! Such fun we had in Paris, in London and even New York.
The energy, the zest, the grasping of life and all it's complications, the thrill, the excitement, the mystery, it all emanated from the ball of fire that trailed from Teddy's body... and it was so easy and fun to get caught up in his orbit and go for the ride. I will never forget the boy and the man he became, though too many years have passed since we saw each other or spoke but those happy memories I will always carry with me along with the sonnet he wrote and all those photos we took years ago... May his star shine bright forever more in all our hearts and may his memory be a blessing. All my love and gratitude to Teddy and all of his beautiful family.
Amy Denebeim Dean
Danny McGarry
February 15, 2013
Nor truer words have ever been written
" Rest in Peace, Sweet Prince" &
" it's not the love you make but the love you take in the end"
We love you Teddy!
February 12, 2013
Shredrick, you're missed you funny, smart, caring, witty, irreverent guy. Sending peace, love and a ton of grooviness to you wherever you are, and of course to your amazing family.
Sean
February 11, 2013
Ted the Shred, force of nature, loyal friend to many, lover of life in fullest fast-forward: your frame of reference encompassed all of ours, enriching us. I can't accept that I won't hear your deep rich voice again on my answering machine. God I'll miss you.
Ciji and Tony
February 10, 2013
Jola, John, and Erika, as our friend said: perhaps the hardest thing about losing Teddy, besides the loss itself, is accepting that we don't understand it and may not, ever. But one thing I know for certain is the circle of love that envelops you three and Teddy, too...and that will be the element that lasts-- and I pray will ultimately sustain you as you walk this path.
Arturo and Jessica Munoz
February 8, 2013
Ted was a much beloved teacher of ours at Rice. Friendly, exuberant, generous, a lover of literature and music; Ted was a true humanist. Our hearts are broken to hear that he is gone; we feel lucky to have known him and to have shared this time, however short it now seems. Our thoughts are with his family and his beloved Holger.
Piero Soria
February 7, 2013
Oh, my friend Ted. How saddened am I to hear this news. All I can think of are the great times we had playing racquetball together or drinking rum and talking nonsense. I still can't believe such a light is no longer part of this world. Miss you dearly old friend.
Julie Robertson
February 7, 2013
Remembering Teddy fondly and I am sending love and light to you all. You are ever connected to the source that Ted has returned to so he is never far. I'm standing in strength for you until you can find yours once again.
Sabine
February 5, 2013
Dearest Jola, John, Erika and family ..what an incredible shock it was to find the message, that Teddy, so loved by all, has left our current common realm. I am feeling foolish to share my instant childlike vision, how Leona will welcome him with open arms, maybe you had the same. My deep condolences to you all! May peace soothe your hearts every day more and more. Sending tons of love and blessings!
February 3, 2013
"Nature made him, and then broke the mold."
-Ludovico Ariosto
Harriet Marty
February 2, 2013
The Martys of Chicago remember Ted's elegant presence at several Chtistmas gatherings in our Riverside home. We came to know and cherish his friendship and mourn his loss. Our condolences go out to Ted's family and to our beloved Susanne Mentzer.
Cassandra Politzer Wiseman
February 1, 2013
Teddy was a happy, very intelligent, loving little boy with a big heart and a big smile. He made a dashing groomsman at our wedding. He was an extremely gifted and modest man, a sweet, nice, gentle soul with a great love of art and music and literature. My thoughts now are with his mom and dad and his lovely sister. It is with all my heart that I embrace them.
David Bénéteau
February 1, 2013
Teddolino caro, I miss you. I first met Ted as my student in Italian 3 at Berkeley. Found him a little entitled, and he had a terrible accent, but he quickly won me over with a presentation on the Perfect Martini. Don't try to poison me with an olive, he said in Italian. He became my best friend when he moved in with me after the Yale insuccess, he was what is now a barista at Peet's Coffee up the street and always smelled like espresso. Introduced me to real-life ballerinas. He was my best friend again when he moved to NY (I'm in NJ), and he introduced me to opera, backstage. He showed me a picture of a beautiful star and announced to me his intentions with her. I laughed at him, but his magic worked, as usual. We made chicken cutlets at midnight and walked down the street trumpeting Cosi' with our mouths, to the delight of passers-by. I stayed with him in Paris, racing past the concierge; he smacked our friend the fruit salesman in the backside walking by while he was standing on a ladder, and he fell into the apples, as in the proverb. Ted ran away screaming with joy. We took a car trip through Italy with my sister, oh how he made us all laugh. Grappa on the rooftop at midnight; let's call Aldo for another. Maybe he won't charge us.
When it was time to say goodbye, he got on the train, opened up his bag and pulled out a pair of white boxer shorts and used them to wave goodbye out the window.
Our terrible loss is mitigated by the incredible joy and laughter he brought to us.
ciao, Teddolino.
caroline hightower
February 1, 2013
I grieve with Ted's family, his partner of many years and her son, and his many friends whose lives were enriched by his exuberance,
intelligence, wit and humanity -
he will be remembered with a smile. Lovely Ted.
Lisa Pavlovsky
January 31, 2013
So shocked and sad to read about the loss of one of my favorite people from my years at Branson. Ted was friend to everyone, always there to talk and laugh with. My thoughts are with his family and friends. A terrible loss to all.
Caroline Hightower
January 31, 2013
I grieve with Ted's family, his partner
of many years and her son, and his dear friends, and find solace in the fact that his intelligence, wit, enthusiasm and generosity were shared with so many who enriched his life in return. Lovely Ted will be remembered with a smile.
January 31, 2013
"Some birds aren't meant to be caged; their feathers are just too bright."
Life was a cage for this beautiful, gifted boy. Try to take solace in the glorious moments of discovery he must have enjoyed during his dzzling flight and think of how many people he inspired, enlighted, moved deeply. He probably left more happy contrails than most of us despite his private battles. You gave him a life which was history's allowance, and it amounted to far more than most people's. I look at his face with love, imagine him speaking Italian, that lovely language. I send you my love. XXXXXXXX000000000 Ann Seymour
Britt Tennell
January 31, 2013
From the moment I met him as an undergrad at Cal on the night he came by to see the place where he'd eventually live and become one of my housemates, Ted struck me as a charming, bright and amusing man. Soon he became a dear and trusted friend and confidant whom I will forever remember. My condolences to his equally lovely sister and parents, who were always so kind and generous. Your brother and son was one of a kind.
January 30, 2013
Ted was my family for 16 years. We had an amazing life full of adventures. He was a role model/big brother to my son. I treasure the good memories and deeply grieve the loss of the special, talented and creative man. He enriched the lives of all who knew him.
Tim Long
January 30, 2013
Ted and I spent several summers together at the Aspen Music Festival. We had great times co-teaching a class, playing tennis and just spending time together. I was greatly saddened to hear about this and will always, always remember him fondly.
Diane Legge Kemp
January 30, 2013
Our entire family who knew Ted well are deeply saddened. Please remember Susanne and Ben who were deeply devoted to Ted in your prayers. The Kemp Family Chicago
Robert Cook
January 30, 2013
Dear Family, I knew Ted here in Pennsylvania. What a loss but what a dear, sweet man. -Rev. Dr Robert Cook
January 30, 2013
To Ted's family,
Please accept my heartfelt sympathy on Ted's death. He and I were 17th-century scholars at Rice University, and shared many interesting conversations about his research and publication. Know that he and you are in my thoughts and prayers.
Anne Schnoebelen, Professor Emerita of Music, Rice University
David Smith
January 30, 2013
We loved Teddy very much - I still remember him driving the Saab 45 miles over dirt roads in the middle of Utah to come spend some quality time with us in our trailer on the edge of a canyon. he was a lovely man and a loyal friend - you have our love and we share in your sadness.
Susanne Mentzer
January 30, 2013
I grieve the loss of my partner of 16 years and the "big brother/role model" to my son, Ben.
A bright light has been eclipsed forever and our hearts are broken.
Ted is also survived by his loyal companion, "Danish Royal Water Dog" Holger Danske.
Susanne Mentzer
January 30, 2013
Ted was and will forever be family to me, his partner of 16 years and my son, Ben, who he knew since he was 6.
We loved him more than anyone will know or understand and are tremendously sad that his light has been eclipsed from our lives.
Sharon McTernan
January 30, 2013
Erika, Jola, and John,
I am deeply saddened hearing this shocking and tragic news. My love and prayers are with you all. I know words will never remove pain that is so deep in your hearts at this time of sadness. I love you all, Sharon McTernan
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