Theodore G. Koerner III ’54

Ted Koerner — history major, Cloister member, veteran, attorney, amateur chef, gardener, and lover of politics, The New York Timescrossword puzzles, Trivial Pursuit, movies, Sinatra, and his late wife, Donalda “Donnie” — died March 4, 2019.

Ted came to us from Maine Township (Ill.) High School. He wrote his senior thesis on “The Progressive Movement in 1924,” played softball, volleyball, and hockey, and played in the football and concert bands.

His pursuit of a law degree at the University of Michigan Law School began in 1954 but was interrupted by two years as an Army officer in Korea (which accounts for his love of old reruns of M*A*S*H) and was completed in 1959. He then practiced law, engaged in real estate, and was admitted to practice before the U.S. Supreme Court, the Supreme Court of Illinois, and the U.S. Court of Military Appeals. 

Ted met Donnie while both were active in real estate. They enjoyed growing a wide variety of vegetables, entertaining, providing gourmet dinners to friends and relatives, and taking two-month vacations in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, every year.

Ted is survived by his five stepchildren, Paul Anderson, Robin Mahaffey and her husband Thomas, Christina Anderson and her husband David, Glen Anderson and his wife Suyapa, and Kirk Anderson; his eight grandchildren, Siri, Tyler, Max, Ian, Laura, Sandy, Peter, and Matthew; and his three great-grandchildren, Ezra, Adelise, and Zulema.