Theodore S. Raphael ’49

Ted died May 6, 2025, at home in Dedham, Mass. He was 96.

He was born in Boston, raised with two brothers, and graduated from Brookline High School. At Princeton, he majored in economics, played the clarinet in the Band and University Orchestra, and was a member of Key & Seal Club. He earned a law degree from Harvard and served in the Army for two years, in Fort Jackson, S.C.

In 1956, after studying accounting, Ted was the second son to join the family accounting firm, Raphael & Raphael, founded by his father in 1941 and still going. When Ted started his career as a CPA and tax attorney, adding machines were used to calculate taxes and returns were paper filed and hand delivered to the IRS or Massachusetts Department of Revenue. He worked at the firm until he was 88; his son joined the firm in 1985; a grandson in 2014; and another grandson in 2021, representing the third and fourth generations.

Ted was an avid golfer and known for his universal friendliness and wry sense of humor.

In 1958, Ted married Roberta; she died in 1982. He is survived by son Harry; daughter Laurie Raphael Samuels; six grandchildren; and six great-grandchildren. His second wife, Laura Silin, died in 2016.