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Edwin (Ted) Hicks
1955 - 2017
Ted passed away October 25, after a long illness. His life was shortened, but he had a life full of experiences, and adventures, and love. Ted was born and raised in Palo Alto, CA when it was a small city surrounded by countryside - a wonderful place for Ted to go bike riding and exploring. He enjoyed cycling and backpacking, and later, road trips with his many friends. Ted was still in touch with some of those childhood friends.
Always a leader, a dreamer and an idealist, Ted started up a youth-run art, craft, and leather work store (Creations Workshop) while still a teen. There he displayed his great photographic talents as well as his leather work. He was self-taught in all the many arts and disciplines he would endeavor to master. From playing the piano, to photography and rock climbing - he became skilled at so many things that we are astounded when recounting them all.
After the high school years, Ted attended and graduated from Menlo Business College, graduating Magna Cum Laude. There he studied economic systems in depth, and discovered his love of spirited debate! After working as a skilled machinist and union organizer post college, he took off on a long journey through the west and Mexico with his college girlfriend. They had a wonderful time exploring the old mining towns of the mountains, and living on the beaches of Mexico.
After working as an entrepreneur in the coin and metals business he traveled to Russia and Ukraine. There he found his true calling in life, as well as his true love. Ted started and directed a nationwide alcohol dependency program, modeled on the 12 step program, in Ukraine. He established a program and protocol for treating one of the leading causes of death for men in that country. He oversaw the training of physicians in a program that brought American treatment methods to the aid of Ukrainians.
One of the physicians he met became his loving wife. They married in Ukraine, and when the program was up and running - after years of on-site work - Ted, Natalya, and her daughter Viktoria all moved back to the U.S. and embarked on an epic RV tour of the country. Ted loved sharing the wonderful and beautiful places of this country with his family. They eventually settled in Eugene, and then Ashland so that Nata and Vika could both pursue U.S. college educations.
Ted leaves behind his wife Natalya Hicks; his daughter Viktoria; mother Anne Frederick Hicks of Sacramento; father Philip Hicks and his wife Mary Lou of La Quinta, CA; sister Kirsten Bartlett (Tom); brothers Jim (Nadine), and Brad (JoAnn); step-brother Lance; as well as nieces and nephews, and friends he adored. He was preceded in death by his grandparents, and his niece Zoe Bartlett, whom Ted was looking forward to seeing again, to once again be greeted by her loving hugs and enthusiastic calling of his name.
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Ginger D'Aiuto (Kelly)
RIP Ted. You were an inspiration to us all!
Gregory Sancier
Even though I only knew Ted from our days in school he always had a passion for life and an amazing sense of humor that touched everyone. God Bless you Ted.
Chris Reynolds
Wow...Ted...I have such great memories of fun and mischief with Ted in the Crescent Park neighborhood, and all over California. Cruising up I-5 to Trinity Alps in his orange Beetle, with the living room sized speakers in the back compartment, music blasting, windows open. La Honda Road and over to Pescadero in his sweet little 190SL convertible. Long nights in the pool house behind his dad's house in Menlo Park. Ted lived with us on Island Drive for a bit when his parents were divorcing. My dad teased him by calling him "Roger the Lodger"...but he always held a fond place in all of our hearts. Go in peace, my friend.
Bill Strubbe
From about 6th grade to 11th grade, Ted was one of my closet friends and we spent a lot of time in each others homes, riding to La Honda and the beach on bikes, dropping a watermelon off the top off the first tall building on University Ave, driving around in his family's Model-T car, swimming in his pool (and Chris Reynold's pool), making woven and leather belts, coming on vacation to La Jolla with my family, smoking pot and then going downtown to eat ice cream at Swensens..., Ted was clever, mischevous, and funny....He also has some troubling family issues that later caused him serious troubles, but he eventually confronted and overcame them and went on to do the amazing thing of creating from nothing the first Alcohlics Annyonmous type meetings and rehabiitation center in the former USSR. He gave hope and a new life to countless former Soviets who were mired in their drinking problems. It was there that he met his future wife, and created for her and her daughter in the USA. Though he and I widely diverged on our political opinions, for many years we keep in touch by phone once or twice a year. He illness was long and protracted, but he managed to keep a sense of humor and positive outlook, and was an inspiration to many. Ted, I will miss you....
Steve De Pangher
My apologies for the length and lateness of this comment. It's been a long time brewing.
Sometime early in 2009 Ted and I reconnected via FaceBook. We'd been very good friends in our years at Jordan but drifted apart in our high school years at Paly. We didn't communicate at all (that I can recall or have records of) from 1973 until our FaceBook connection in 2009. Reconnecting after at least 35 years of radio silence was surprisingly easy. Besides Ted's enthusiastic and welcoming words, I think we also found it easy to establish rapport because of his experience in Ukraine and mine in Romania. Whatever the case, it was encouraging see how Ted had clearly "found something" in Ukraine.
Over the next 7 years or so we periodically exchanged letters, some long and reflective and others short - the latter usually being ones which Ted would send after a bout of ill health when he could do very little but stay alive. His reflections on our days at Jordan and Paly were hilarious and insightful. One of the reasons I delayed posting these comments is that his reflections that are relevant to Jordan and Paly days were often very personal - both about him and the persons he wrote about. I felt like this stuff was private and that he wouldn't have wanted me to share it. But some of the experiences just he and I had together seemed perfectly okay to share. I have chosen one. The context is a Hicks family vacation that I was invited to join. Something like a one-day flu struck me. I went to lie down after a wonderful dinner (Ted refers to this very differently!) made by Mrs. Hicks. She came into where I was laying down and asked how I was doing. Afraid that I might be nauseous, she suggested that I change where I was lying down to be closer to the bathroom. Unbelievably, I tried to answer that I was fine. On that cue, I managed to lay down a stripe of barf on my sleeping bag as I tried to make my way to the bathroom. Pretty embarrassing. Ted's letter takes it from there:
Not long ago my mom sent me a few CD's she'd had made up of a lot of old family photos. Well .... lo and behold .... there we were in all our 14 year old glory. I don't know if you remember this trip to Blue Lake with my family, but I sure do. You, unfortunately, had a bout with the flu or perhaps my mom poisoned you with some "hamburger casserole." The cause of this memorable event is not nearly as important as the outcome. Do you remember what came next? I'll remimd you just to put a smile on your face and mine. You were feeling much better the next morning after a good night's sleep . But just to remind the world of what had come up the might before, there was a green been stuck between your toes. It was, of course, the kind of event that just etches itself forever into the mind of an adolescent. Well, at least it burned itself into my brain forever. It still cracks me up to be honest. So I figured at least you deserved a photo to remind you that there was more than a stomach turning night and a green bean morning to the adventure. It was a great time.
Ted closed this letter with this picture. Don't worry, viewers, my toes aren't visible.
In 2015, in the last letter I wrote to Ted, I closed with these words:
In a direct sense, we don’t get the chance to live over again the “mistakes” that we’ve made in life. But, indirectly, maybe we do. I’m not 100% sure I know what I mean by this. I look back on our youthful shared adventures and I’m glad we had them. As a parent, I would probably have simply freaked out if I knew that my kids were doing what I did in those days! How unfair! And yet, God has put me in a place today wherein I can interact with hundreds of kids, aged 5-18, that I can try to offer some of the learning I’ve had from the mistakes and silliness of my past. This gift is priceless to me. After many years of working in jobs that I hated (high tech mostly), I am now doing something that I can’t believe I get paid for doing. (Have I already shared this with you?) What I’m saying is that I’m glad we managed to forge some wonderful memories together and, not by chance, the fondest memories seem to be those that are somewhat “on the edge” of responsibility and respectability. By the grace of God, we got to have some great fun together and it is a blessed thing. I don’t understand how the blessing works, but it does. I don’t know that it all fits neatly into the theology I hold to be true, but I don’t have worry too much about it. That too is a gift.
“Old friendships” aren’t replaceable. Thanks for sharing this precious gift with me.
When you can manage writing back, please do. But I don’t want you to feel any sense of duty. I treasure the gift of these communications and the memories they bring, even to us two “old men” who are having trouble remembering virtually anything!
I learned that Ted passed away when I received a note from Natalia, Ted's wife. She shared that Ted was grateful that he and I had reconnected after so many years. I am too. And it is tribute Ted, through all the highs and lows he went through, that he kept learning and growing, He had much to look back on with regret and I understand from others that the regret he felt was valid. What I received from Ted was only warmth, humor, and the reforging of a friendship, even if at a distance. He taught me some valuable things in our distance communications, things that I still don't fully understand. I am grateful for Ted and remember him with fondness and joy.