The Early YearsTed’s early years were in London, Ohio. He was born in 1931 to Robert and Georgianna Chaney. His father, an OWU Beta in the 1920’s (Roll #512), owned an insurance firm and his mother, in addition to raising 3 children, was a teacher. She graduated from OWU in 1928. A grandfather also attended OWU and an uncle was also a Beta brother at Ohio State U. His sibling, Barbara still lives in Madison County, Ohio and a brother, Tom is in Denver, Colorado.
Growing up, Ted was encouraged in music and, because his grandmother had a flute, that was Ted’s instrument of choice and his ticket to play in the London HS band. Although a bit shy, Ted was soon to come alive from the OWU and Beta environment he was soon to enjoy.
Ohio Wesleyan
With several family connections with OWU, there was never any doubt as to what college would get Ted’s application. In 1949 Ted was off to OWU and his first two years of rooming with his London friend, Ed Lilly ’53. Ted was an accounting major from the very beginning. George Crowl (Geology professor) taught one of Ted’s non-accounting classes and Ted became very interested in the subject. Although encouraged by Professor Crowl to make it his major, Ted stayed with the accounting department for his Wesleyan major. Ted’s social life at OWU was limited, but for good reason….. more on that later.
Beta Theta Pi
Virtually upon his arrival on campus, after few visits to the fraternity open houses and with his family history, Ted was quickly pledged Beta at the 54 W. Lincoln house. Key in this was another London friend, Ned Speasmaker ’50. Ted was active in the chapter from the very beginning and served as Treasurer his junior year.
His grades were good from the beginning and as a result, he was able to move into the house for his junior year. He became close friends and roomed with Bob Neff, a pledge brother also in class of ’53. Also rooming with them was Vern Thomas and later Keith Thomas ’54.
Fond Beta memories included the bridge games with Metzel ’53 et al and especially his frequent talks with Mama Linn. As Ted remarked, “Mama Linn was one of a kind and a very dear person. She contributed immensely to the lives of those of us who came into contact with her gentle graces.” Neff, Eiken, Davenport and McClintock (1953) were wonderful brothers and we still share fond memories to this day. Other fond memories included Ms. Long and the Long boys…….including Tom and Bill who were in school with Ted.
Graduation and US Air Force
At the time of his graduation from OWU, Ted was also commissioned from the ROTC into the USAF. He was soon off to his first USAF assignment at, of all places, Wright Patterson Air Force base outside Dayton, Ohio…..only a short distance from his London home. His poor eyesight kept him from a flying assignment (as was true for many others) and as a result his active duty commitment was for only 2 years. His assignment and training prepared him for security and intelligence assignments, which included security background checks and a small amount of criminal investigation. He was promoted to chief of his section, which was at the displeasure of others of greater service and experience. Wright Patterson was a “dream assignment” for a non-military type and was perfect for Ted and Marianna’s life style.
Career
Following his discharge from the Air Force in 1956, his civilian career began with a job in Lancaster, Ohio with Anchor Hocking……thanks to a contact with Dick McClintock’s father. After 1 year, Ted left for another opportunity with Timken Bearing in Canton, Ohio. This proved to be an improvement in both their social life as well as the improved remunerations from Timken. His work with Timken lasted for about 10 years and his assignments covered some accounting work but most of the career there was in data processing and systems. He very much liked the systems work and made significant contributions in the areas of plant scheduling and inventory control. His next move was to the Eaton Yale & Towne Company where he employed his special expertise in the data systems development work. After 3 years, Marianna found Cleveland to lack something for her needs and they left for Columbus, Ohio and an assignment with Nationwide Insurance headquarters. Ted’s work with Nationwide lasted until his retirement 11 years later in 1991. They had settled in Westerville, a small (at that time) suburb of Columbus.
Through Marianna’s encouragement, they began to purchase properties to “buy—renovate—rent” and as this approach proved successful, Ted continued this strategy. During his retirement, he became interested in local civic matters and as a result found himself accepting numerous assignments on local boards and commissions for the past 20 years. Some of the work dealt with local planning, zoning and architectural reviews.
Family and Friends
As noted earlier, Ted’s social life at OWU was limited…..but for good reason. His high school sweetheart, Marianna, was attending Wittenberg College in nearby Springfield, Ohio. Much of Ted’s time was traveling the road to Springfield…in his 1931 Chevrolet….and the two were married in 1953 before his graduation because their parents insisted as they had plans to go to Florida for a senior year vacation. They had many happy years until her passing in 1988. They had one son, Robert, who lives in Philadelphia where he is the acting director for the museum for contemporary art. Robert graduated from Ohio State U and has two children. While living in Westerville, he has been active in numerous community activities including serving as campaign treasurer for 2 school board candidates, the first president and sponsor of the VW club of Columbus. The VW club sponsors the largest VW car show of its kind in this part of the country. Ted has also been an officer in the Westerville Art League.
Ted resides at 22 E.
Walnut Street, Westerville,
Ohio 43081 and can be
reached at 614-882-5878 or by
email at…….
tedchaney@wowway.com.
From L to R — VanBuren ’52, Neff ’53, Davenport ’53, Chaney ’53, McClintock ’53
Ted Chaney
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