Deceased July 5, 2021

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In Memory

Faithful readers will recall that a few months ago I was happy to advise that Ted, who had been out of touch with the College for some 70 years, had started writing me with all manner of news. So it is with sadness and surprise I learned of his passing last July at age 93, since we had chatted shortly before then. 

He had a most interesting life, personally and professionally. He came to Amherst from Chicopee, Massachusetts, a Gaylord Scholar, 100 percent, as he was proud to tell me, and proved his worth academically and was captain of the cross-country team. At the College, he formed a club for fishing, supported by President Charles Cole, who was an angler. It proved to be a seminal move. 

In 1949, he was drafted, sent to OCS and ended up in Wellfleet, Massachusetts, training National Guard units in anti-aircraft fire. He admitted, “What a deal!” In 1953, he went to Columbia Law School and became seriously involved in fishing and conservation with Lee Wulff and CBS, which involved trips to Labrador and Newfoundland.

Upon graduation, he joined the Wall Street firm Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft, about as “white shoe” as you could get for a guy who wanted to wear rubber boots. Along the way, Ted Williams, the baseball legend, became his client and fishing buddy in Florida and Canada. 

Ted left CWT for a post with the Justice Department in Washington as senior trial attorney to prosecute environmental degradation cases. He worked with Interior Secretary Stewart Udall and William Ruckelshaus in forming the EPA and told me he got his name on the front page of The New York Times twice.

His first wife and mother of their three children died of cancer while they were living in Seattle. He retired from the EPA in 1992, healthy and prosperous and spent most of his time hunting and fishing. He became a nationally recognized expert in fly fishing and wrote articles for Esquire and Fly Tyer magazines. 

Ted married Joan Wulff in 2002 and assisted in teaching at the Wulff School of Fly Fishing, near their home in Lew Beach, New York, spending his time on the Beaverkill River as a true environmentalist. A fascinating life. I only wish he had kept us posted.

Gerry Reilly ’49