Following his first year at Wooster, Ted received an invitation from his cousin, Gilbert "Pudge" Hole, to spend the summer of 1953 working for his company. Pudge, chief geologist at Bethlehem Steel and a former outstanding athlete at Wooster, offered a position that involved searching for and sampling limestone outcrops in Southern Ontario. "I decided then that I would like to know more about geology," he says. "When the fall came, I changed my major from art to geology, and it has been a love affair ever since."

Speaking of love, Ted's excellent adventure continued when he married his high school sweetheart, Beatrice Louderback, in the summer of 1954. That fall, they moved to Wooster, taking up residence in the old World War II Navy barracks.

The following spring, the couple welcomed their first child, Barbara Lynne. Three more children followed - Michael in 1957, Melissa in 1959, and Christopher in 1961.

As a student at Wooster, Ted says he benefited most from the wisdom of Phil Shipe, the insight of Melcher Fobes, and the knowledge of Charles Moke.

"Phil is near the top of my list as an educator," says Ted. "He offered his philosophy for coping and building a life."

"Dr. Fobes was an absolute delight, whether in math class or in a chapel discourse on Leonardo da Vinci," adds Hole. "He was truly a renaissance man."

"And Dr. Moke was the no-nonsense head of the geology department, who enchanted me with his lectures and field trips," says Hole. "He lured me into my lifelong profession."

Lessons learned at Wooster prepared Ted for what would be a remarkably successful, rewarding, and satisfying career.

After graduating in 1956, he was offered a job by another Wooster alumnus, Roger Stoneburner from the Class of 1944. The newly formed company, San Jacinto Oil and Gas, was based in Houston, but Ted spent much of his time doing well-site geology and making reservoir evaluations in Texas, Oklahoma, and Louisiana.

The following year, Ted was sent to Lake Maracaibo in Venezuela to oversee the gathering of geological data during the drilling of Roger's wildcat well in the middle of the lake. The venture was enormously successful. "It was a real eye-opener to see Roger Stoneburner in action," he said.

In 1963, Ted joined Union Texas Petroleum in Lafayette, La. Two years later he was invited to join another start-up venture, The Hamilton Brothers in the North Sea. He was stationed in London, where he served as chief geologist and exploration manager conceptualizing prospects that realized the discoveries of nine North Sea fields.

In 1969, Ted returned to Houston, where he continued to manage North Sea affairs while adding the role of head of a staff charged with evaluating undrilled offshore blocks in the Gulf of Mexico. The group's efforts culminated in the discoveries of five very large fields in the Gulf for The Hamilton Brothers and their partners.

Ted's reputation continued to grow, and in 1975, he was named chief geologist for the Hunt Oil Company in Dallas. Within three years, Hunt had drilled a number of successful wells in Texas and Louisiana. Ted had also managed to map and suggest an opportunity in the North Sea that resulted in the "Beatrice" oil field discovery in offshore Scotland.

In 1979, Ted set up a consulting business while continuing on a retainer with Hunt Oil Company. It was at this time that he completed one of his "most satisfying projects" when he and a group of Hunt geophysicists mapped and evaluated the oil and gas prospects in the sedimentary rocks under the South China Sea.

"It has been 43 wonderful, exciting, and rewarding years of making maps," he says. "I would not have changed a thing."