Person:Ted White (1)

Info. on Ted White

Recalling the interesting facts of my brothers life has been a real challenge. Unfortunately, time takes its toll on the old memory banks but I will attempt to put-to-pen all of the things that I can.

Ted was born in 1929 and I in 1940 so I will not have much for those years except for the stories that my mother would tell. When the four kids, Anita, Arnold, Ted and Nona were little they lived in a small house on Walnut St. in Grand Rapids, MI.

Our dad added a second story to the house and it is still there today. Dad worked near by at the Sunshine Hospital that took care of TB patients at the time. He was the head of the maintenance dept. and retired from there after 43+ years.

Dad was pretty handy and I guess it influenced Arnold and Ted but the boys would soon get into projects that were way beyond dad. Arnold built a crystal radio at age 8 and overhauled an engine at 10. He had a natural ability with anything mechanical or electrical. I'm sure that this was where Ted learned a lot about these things.

In their teen years they would build model planes, both free-flight and control line and would enter (and usually win) speed contest.

Arnold got a job at a hobby shop and learned much about that and audio equipment business . They would set up sound systems at fairs and other large outdoors events. Later, Ted also worked for the same hobby shop.

Neither of the boys liked school and they both quit in the tenth grade. We lived out in the country north of Lowell in the early 40's and I can remember Arnold and Tedtrying to get the old model A Ford started on cold winter mornings. Tinkering with old cars became a necessity when that's all you could afford. This just honed their diagnostic and mechanical abilities and I'm sure was a stepping stone for what they were to do in later life.

Arnold went on to get a job with Lear, which made components for the military and aircraft industries.

Ted joined the Air Force and became an electronics instructor for B-29's. After getting out of the Air Force he came back home and went to Michigan State for a year. He then got a job with Philco where he received more schooling and at some point got a degree (I think) from some university. Philco sent him into the field and he spent several years in the orient.

While in Japan he met and married Susie. His work involved setting up radar tracking stations. These would become the future satellite tracking systems used by NASA.

I got to spend part of the summer of 1959 in Alaska. He and Susie were living in Ketchican but he worked on Annette Island.

From this point on, Susie could give you details on where they lived and worked. I do know that after AK. they lived out east for a few years. Since Ted was involved in the "tracking" business it was a natural that NASA would want he and some of the others to be a part of the space program. It was at this point that he and Susie moved to Seabrook, TX where they would raise Susan and Mark and they would live until Ted retired.

Ted is mentioned several times in the book "Failure Is Not An Option" written by former NASA flight director Gene Kranz. I'm sure that Mark has a copy of it, if you have not already read it. Through the years Ted worked on most of the NASA projects.

During the work on the "space-lab", Ted was the liaison between NASA and the European contractors. He would have to travel quite often, too bad they did not have "frequent flyer miles" back then.

About every other year Ted would take vacation time and come to MI to visit family. He would usually drive up in the big Suburban but a few times flew up in his Cherokee 140. We always looked forward to his visits. A strange thing about Ted, though, he never talked about his work. Even when asked, he would give a brief answer but would play-down his part in what ever it was. Yet, we were to learn after his passing that he had tons of awards and plaques given him through the years. I'm sure that Mark remembers a lot of this stuff.

Susan has a video that was made just after Ted's memorial. Two of his co-workers came up from Houston and went through a picture album of the days at NASA.They would explain the significance of each picture, where it was taken and what the project was. They told us so much, it was fascinating. I tried to make a copy of it but could not get Susan's camcorder to play. I, for one, would love to have a copy of this tape and I'll bet Mark would also. I will ask Susan if she will take it to a store that does transfer of video to DVD. I have only hit the highlights and there is so much more, some I've forgotten, some I do not know about. It would be nice if all the family members would input into this we might have a "best seller"! Someday ( I hope not too far off ) we can sit down and talk. I'll still be taking notes as I recall little things that may be of interest. I will also look for some pictures to go along with all of this. Stu

1. ↑ Ancestry.com. Texas Birth Index, 1903-1997. (Name: The Generations Network, Inc.; Location: Provo, UT, USA; Date: 2005;)
   Database online.

   Record for Mark Allen White _FOOT: Ancestry.com, Texas Birth Index, 1903-1997 (Provo, UT, USA: The Generations Network, Inc., 2005), Database online.

2. ↑ Ted White, in Texas Department of State Health Services. Texas Death Index, 1903-2000.
3. ↑ ^{3.0 3.1 3.2} Ted Allen White, in United States. Social Security Administration. U.S., Social Security Applications and Claims Index, 1936–2007. (Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, 2015).