Ted Freeman

Ted Walton Freeman

Ted Walton Freeman, age 86, passed away peacefully after a short illness on December 29, 2021 at his home in San Anselmo, CA, where he lived for 55 years. He was surrounded by his loving family in his last days at home, including Vida, his wife of 60 years. He was born in February 1935 to Samuel and Annie Freeman. With his dad in the Army Ted initially moved around a lot, his family eventually settling in Riverside, CA after the end of WWII. He graduated from Riverside Polytechnic High School and was in the inaugural class of UC Riverside, graduating with a BA in Political Science in 1957. He played basketball in high school and at UC Riverside, and remained a basketball fan his entire life, particularly of the Golden State Warriors, the Stanford University Women and, most importantly, any team any of his children or grandchildren played on.
After college graduation Ted enlisted in the US Navy, attending boot camp in San Diego where he was a member of the Navy Choir. A lifelong fan of singing, joining the choir gave him more freedom in boot camp. In 1958 he attended Officer Candidate School. He served in the Navy until 1962 and then the Navy Reserves, reaching the rank of Lieutenant. He was stationed first in Taiwan (learning some Mandarin and becoming a lover of Chinese food) and then at the National Security Agency (NSA) in Ft. Meade, MD. While at the NSA, he met his wife Vida over raw oysters (for breakfast!) on New Year's Day, 1961.
After getting married in November 1961, they moved to California to attend graduate school at UC Berkeley. Ted received his teaching credential and became a high school teacher of US History, Government and Economics, first in Stockton and then, after moving to Marin in 1965, at Terra Linda (TL) for 30 years. He was a beloved teacher at TL, winning outstanding teacher awards, serving as a graduation speaker invited by the senior class, chaperoning the Senior Ball, and "starring" in some faculty-student school plays. He usually ran or biked to TL. One morning he crashed, resulting in an injury on his calf conveniently in the shape of a "V".
After Ted retired in 1995, he thrived on serving his community. He served on the Marin County Grand Jury and trained new grand jurors. Turning his attention to San Anselmo, he was involved in town initiatives including the Quality of Life and Planning Commissions and the Library Advisory Board. He then served on the town council, including a term as Mayor. He volunteered at the San Anselmo Library and the library bookstore. He won an award for checking all 49,000 (!!!) books in the library collection ensuring they were in the correct place. He loved helping with Book Babies/Toddler Storytime (2011 until the pandemic shutdown) where his duties included intercepting runaway toddlers, singing along and sweeping up escaped Cheerios. He also volunteered with Habitat for Humanity.
Retirement enabled Ted to act as a regular caregiver (aka "having fun with GPA") for all three of his beloved grandchildren, Pace, Jordan and Nash. Many of their memories of this time are food related: cinnamon graham crackers, morning pancakes, quesadillas, limeade, ice cream, toast with peanut butter they ground themselves. Others include playing blackjack and war, sleepovers, gardening, juice "experiments", building things, going with him to Book Babies, and history lessons (one of them, at 4, asked him of WWII "if the first one was so bad, why did they have a second one?").
When his children were young the family regularly took cross country car trips, visiting many National Parks. Later in life Ted and Vida started traveling out of the country, going to many different countries, and taking each of their grandchildren on a trip to Europe. They also enjoyed the Shakespeare Festival in Ashland and regular trips with Ted's sister and brother-in-law, Patsy and Neil Roth. For their 55th Wedding Anniversary they took their children and grandchildren on a trip to Alaska.
Among Ted's many passions: reading, collecting books, running (SF marathon finisher), donating blood (over 10 gallons!), writing poetry, the SF Giants, the Tottenham Hotspurs, any team in any sport that his children or grandchildren played on, hot sauce, sweets of all sorts (his students made him a t-shirt that said "there's no such thing as a bad cookie"), margaritas, the Day of the Dead, IPAs, "Buffy, the Vampire Slayer", quoting "Airplane!" ("And don't call me Shirley!"), singing, music of all sorts, wine tasting. A boxing fan in his youth, in the last few days of his life family members read to him one last book, a biography of the boxer Joe Frazier, a Christmas present.
Ted is survived by his wife Vida; his children Lisa (Geoff) and Ned; grandchildren, Pace, Jordan and Nash; sister Patsy Roth (Neil); cousin Sister Anne Eugene; sister-in-laws Peggy Simmons (Jay) and Lynn Troutman; and several nieces and nephews and their children. He was predeceased by his parents Samuel and Annie; stepmother Mertice; brother Tobie; stepbrother Eugene; nephew Christopher; niece Laura; and mother-in-law Vivian Stroup.
A service honoring Ted will be held at the Sacramento Valley National Cemetery (5810 Midway Rd, Dixon, CA) at 2:00 on April 4th. In lieu of flowers, please consider donating to the San Anselmo Friends of the Library (FOSAL, 411 San Anselmo Ave, Suite 103, San Anselmo, CA 94960), Habitat for Humanity or giving the gift of life by donating blood at your local blood bank.