TED PEZMAN

Theodore Louis "Ted" Pezman was born August 27, 1911 in Chicago, the son of Sol and Sarah E. Josephson Pezman. He died October 28, 2007 in his home in San Clemente, California.

He moved to Paris, Missouri soon after birth then across the Mississippi River to Quincy, Illinois, studied violin and clarinet, graduated high school in 1929, graduated University of Illinois in 1933 with a degree in English (claiming yardage record in the football stadium as a marching band member), spent a discovery year in Paris fiddling on street corners, then came west to California in 1934 via boxcar.

While employed at the Unemployment Agency in Los Angeles he noticed a job as a camp counselor for delinquent juveniles in LA County forestry camps and took it. After some years, became Assistant Camp Director, eventually leaving the employ of LA County to become Executive Director of Community Rehabilitation Industries in Long Beach, CA. Ted retired from C.R.I. at age 65, then was employed by the State Department of Vocational Rehab as a Facilities Consultant.

In his other life, Ted was an aspiring writer for stage and screen who married Levonne Giest, an actress in a play he wrote, produced by the Federal Theater Project in 1938. While writing an immigrant story, "The Sun Rises in the West" he stopped by the Steinbeck house in Salinas unannounced, was invited in, and they spent the afternoon comparing notes. During the 1950's Ted co-authored scripts, on of which was produced on TV's "Playhouse 90". They had two sons, Stephen (1941) and Thomas (1949). The family lived in Los Feliz and Brentwood from 1940-955, in 1956 moving to the canals Naples on Alamiltos Bay, Long Beach where the boys learned to surf, boat and love the ocean. Theo was divorced from Levonne in 1965 and married Marita Ward (then a Chapter Director of the Crippled Children's Society) in 1966. During a 35 year career in public service helping the troubled and disadvantaged, Ted utilized his gifts for public speaking and writing to good advantage, authoring pieces in trade journals, writing inspirational messages, and serving as MC for service gatherings and fund rasing dinners.

He cultivated lifelong friendships with a variety of stimulating people from his various involvements including entertainment figures, political radicals, public service administrators, engaging pinochle players, and many intelligent and off-beat human beings, and those interrelationships enriched both their lives, his own and his family's. His freely applied wit ranged from banal to cerebral, and as he aged, he spoke his mind freely. He loved to title and caption life out loud as it passed before him, using a deadpan stare while awaiting a reaction. Warning: the waitress best beware who asked what he wanted. He could be a penny-pincher on little things, like tips, and generous when it really mattered. From early in life, he endeavored to add a word a day to his vocabulary, read voraciously in many fields, maintained extremely liberal conviction, and adhered to principals of fair-play. Anyone could win his undying, non-judgmental support by trying to help themselves. Those around him could not help be positively affected.

Wife Marita survives Theodore, along with sons Steve and his wife Debbie and Tom and his wife April, five grandchildren, and eight great grandchildren as well as three stepchildren, four step grandchildren, five step great grandchildren, a sister in law, Cleora Pezman of Quincy and two nieces, Barbara Brewster of McKinney, TX and Sherry Leonard of Quincy.

Mr. Pezman was prececed in death by his parents and a brother Judge Alfred L. Pezman.

Funeral services were held Sunday November 4 in San Clemente, CA. Graveside services will be held Tuesday morning, November 6, at 9:00 in the Valley of Peace Cemetery in Quincy.

Memorials may be made to Transitions of Western Illinois. The Zehender Robinson Stormer Cookson Funeral Home is in charge of the arrangements.