Obituary Ted Naughton

Ted Naughton, 87, of Head of the Harbor died peacefully at home with his family, having lived a full life, on July 25, 2021. 

Born January 2, 1934 in Hempstead New York, Ted was the son of John and Lilian (Hrenciar) Naughton.  He and his two sisters, Eve and Janet, lived in various towns in the metropolitan New York area, as his mother, who had come to the US from Czechoslovakia alone at the age of 12, liked to move regularly.

After high school Ted joined the Army and went off to the Korean War, where he learned on the job to become an expert on radar while on a spy boat behind enemy lines, played on the Army Basketball Team and ran an import/export business, importing American cars into Japan.

After the army, Ted went to Alfred University, where he met his future wife Rosemary Bracker.  Ted and Rosemary were married in 1961 and remained together for the rest of his life.  

Following college, Ted became an electrician, like his father.  Soon he shifted his focus to construction management, and held a number of positions in Puerto Rico, Bermuda, Key West, Boca Raton and Lake Tahoe, before settling into working for various Long Island school districts as Clerk of the Works.   He also participated in the management of affairs in his home town of Head of the Harbor as Commissioner of Highways from 1998-2013, and as a Village Trustee from 2006-2013. 

Ted was a pilot and would fly himself regularly from his office in Boca Raton to a branch office in Key West.  Ted’s passion was racing sailboats.  He particularly enjoyed modifying sailboat designs to make boats faster.  He won countless races over the years, including the very first Around Long Island Regatta in 1977, along with his son Ted.  Together they also won the 25^th Around Long Island race in 2001.   He and his many friends went on sailing adventures throughout the Bahamas and the Florida Keys, and from Long Island to Maine, visiting with friends along the way.  

Ted had a gracious ease about him – he was comfortable with himself, and made those around him feel the same.  He was non-judgmental, completely accepting of others, and felt like an old friend from the moment you met him.  He had an easy laugh, and a glimmer in his eye that spoke of mischief past, or yet to come.  His gentle humor was contagious.  To know him was to feel the world was a better place.

As his lifelong friend Roy Koelbel wrote:

My longest, closest and best friend Ted Naughton passed on Sunday.  My friend, MY FRIEND!   What is a friend anyway?  We all have them, some more or less in different ways.  We care and often share with them in different ways, and value them as critical to our life experience.  

And then sometimes there is a friend that seems to know you better than you know yourself.  A selfless friend who never puts his own needs as friend above your own.  The friend you trust your most prized possessions with.  The friend you share your deepest thoughts and feelings with.  A friend who judges your actions but never judges you.  The friend who can tell you as he sees it, not what you want to hear.  The friend who can criticize you, laugh at your errors, but always has your back when things get serious.  The friend who is not like you but you are very much the same.  The friend you may be separated from for long periods but you pick it up where you left off as if it were yesterday.  The friend you never have to do anything for to maintain that friendship.  Ted was that friend for me.  

In elementary school he moved onto our little street and we met after one of his pigeons got loose and I captured it.  We played some ball together, did boys’ stuff together, dreamed boys’ dreams together, and though his family kept moving, we always kept up - through high school, college, the Army, best man at each other’s weddings, sailed together, grew old together, reminisced and laughed together.  Neither time nor distance seemed to affect our friendship.  

Now Ted is gone.  As he would say, “Well, that’s it.”  I think not.  I think Ted is transitioning to a new experience, and I can’t wait to hear about it, and we can laugh again at the old times.  God bless you Ted and all your family, and thanks for being my friend.”

Members of Ted’s family include his wife Rosemary Bracker Naughton, his son Ted, his wife Morgan Dudley, and granddaughter Lauren of Exeter, NH, and his daughter Kerry and her husband Pete Molnar of Albuquerque, NM.  He was predeceased by his sisters Eve Naughton and Janet Heins.  Ted’s family would like to express their deepest gratitude to his caregiver and friend, Yvette Distafano.

A celebration of Ted’s life will be held at a later date.