Deceased October 5, 2021
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In Memory
Ted transferred after our junior year and graduated from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis in 1955. He soon blended private practice with an amazing adventure as an entrepreneur.
A fellowship at Peter Bent Brigham Hospital exposed him to medical pioneers in kidney dialysis. As an instructor at Harvard Medical School, he put the pieces together: hospitals lacked facilities to meet the growing demands of patients with kidney disease; private enterprise could create the scale and efficiencies to meet the challenge. Ted co-founded National Medical Care, Inc., in 1968 to provide easy-access kidney dialysis. Its growth rate boomed into a national chain, propelled by the diabetes problem and Medicare eligibility.
Ted took some heat for making money from a medical problem. The Boston Globe ran a 1971 cartoon depicting coins pouring from a dialysis-resembling slot machine. Ted’s rejoinder in Newsweek: “But who should do it—the mailman, the stock broker, the bus driver? With non-profits, there’s no incentive to improve service or keep costs down.”
Ted resigned as chairman in 1980 to run for U.S. Senator from New Hampshire. He got 10 percent of Republican primary votes, close behind John Sununu.
In 1985, he founded Novavax to leverage proprietary recombinant nanoparticle vaccine technology to prevent a range of diseases, now including COVID-19.
Ted died on Oct. 5, leaving his wife, four children and eight grandchildren.
Nick Evans ’52