It is with Unimaginable Sadness that we have lost our Dear Ted Zanidakis

[brunswickreeves]

Leon-could we start a Net54 Hall of Fame and induct Ted? Maybe it’s a section on the home page that contains folders for each legend which archives their posts and contains their picture and official Obit.

[FrankWakefield]

This thread reminds me of going to the funeral home for visitation when a dear old friend passes. People that I haven't seen in a while will show up, and it's sad, and it's heartwarming. Reminds me of Bang The Drum Slowly.

Here, I look through the posts and see folks who posted years ago, but not very often, nowadays. People that knew him better than me, people that knew him just barely, through the board... and in between. It's touching to see the old guys' posts, and the new members.

We on this board are his family... all of us.

[spec]

What an immeasurable loss to our hobby, and this board in particular. Let's honor Ted's memory by resolving to emulate his special qualities: his passion, his kindness, his generosity in sharing the vast hobby knowledge he amassed through research as well as experience. I've learned so much from Ted's posts about the sets that intrigued him: E90-1, 1947 Bond Bread, 1949 (yes, 1949) Leaf, 1949 Bowman and, of course, T206. I'll never look at my 1947 Bond Bread set (which still includes a few square-cornered interlopers) without thinking of Ted. My condolences to Dan, Ted's family and others who loved him.
B0b Rich@rds0n

[hcv123]

Originally Posted by brunswickreeves

Leon-could we start a Net54 Hall of Fame and induct Ted? Maybe it’s a section on the home page that contains folders for each legend which archives their posts and contains their picture and official Obit.

I'm going to start a separate thread with the suggestion

[Seven]

Many posts later, and I think it's just incredible how many lives Ted touched here on the forum, I can only imagine the amount of people that were impacted by him outside of it.

I find myself checking the forum more often, than my normal once or twice a day. Feeling a little hollow looking at the posts and the active members, and not seeing TedZ as active. He was a constant presence. The knowledge and stories that he would always include in his posts always brought a smile to my face. In some ways I think I find myself checking in the hopes that this tragedy didn't happen.

Dealing with loss of a friend or family, has to be the worst part of life. By Far.

[brunswickreeves]

Originally Posted by hcv123

I'm going to start a separate thread with the suggestion

Thanks for the assist! Some may argue there’ll be arguing, but did that prevent Cooperstown??

[Yoda]

I dated for a short time Phil Rizzuto's daughter, Penny, in college. Ted, being a neighbor of Phil's, and I joked about it for years. Ted's astonishing knowledge of the T206 set matched anyones in the hobby. He rekindled my waning interest in the set when he pointed out the many vagaries and variations, particularly the different series and their importance. Now that knowledge is gone.

[samosa4u]

Look how many posts this thread has and currently almost 6,000 views. Ted's hobby impact was huge. He will be missed.

Being a hobby historian myself is what led me to connect with guys like Ted. With him being more than twice my age, I was really interested in his work on the hobby which he started before I was even born. Of course, our big age gap made it a bit difficult to connect well, but that's understandable. A few times he would misinterpret my questions as criticism and cut me off for a while , but his passion for the hobby was too great and we'd always hit it off again.

In honoring Ted, I think that all the work he has done over the decades needs to be made into a book. This would include all the articles he published in hobby magazines, personal journals and even his online posts (like Net54). This is obviously something that would take a crazy amount of work, but with the family's help, I am pretty sure it can be done. And finally, Ted always loved to use his collection in order to educate others. All his cards and variations should be scanned and integrated into this book. That would be just awesome!

[JeremyW]

I didn't know Ted on a personal level, but reached out to him a few times with hobby related questions. He never failed to respond & shared his knowledge that took a lifetime to acquire. I hope he knew how appreciated he was.

[VintageBall]

Just saw this. Sad news, for sure. While I didn't know Ted well, I knew him as a hobby friend, and spoke with whom at shows gong back over 20 years. He was a good person and a passionate collector, and the hobby will surely miss him.

He was a great contributor here and to the hobby, in general, for decades.

It was always great to see him at the National and other shows each year.

I hope his family is doing OK.

Robert
VintageBall