Teddy Ebersol "argued the conservative pit crew to their knees"

Obituary: Edward 'Teddy' Ebersol



Ebersol family


By The Ebersol family

Teddy Ebersol died Sunday, November 28, in the crash of a private plane near Telluride, Colorado. He was 14 years old....

Teddy was a warm, loving, and energetic young man with a self-knowledge beyond his years and a wonderfully quirky sense of humor that led him to say things that could be interpreted as silly and profound at once. While speaking at his eighth-grade graduation ceremony, he said: “A quote that I made up a little while ago seems to make sense to me now as I reflect on the years behind me and the years ahead: ‘I follow, therefore I lead.’”

He loved politics, and enjoyed engaging grownups in lively political discussions. While at the Daytona 500 earlier this year, he took great delight in debating the entire conservative-leaning pit crew of driver Kyle Petty. Bill Rollnick, a family friend who was there with the Ebersols, said: “Teddy explained to them why they were wrong politically, arguing from knowledge. He argued them to their knees. I’m a Democrat and next to Teddy I felt like Jerry Falwell. He was very opinionated, but he was never unkind. At 13 years old, he knew so much. I yearned for the day I could have won an argument with him.”

Although wise beyond his years, Teddy had a charming innocence. A fan of the television show SpongeBob SquarePants, his favorite character wasn’t SpongeBob himself but rather Patrick, the intensely loyal, exuberant sidekick. He enjoyed as well video games (Halo 2 was a recent highlight), music, and the Harry Potter and Lemony Snicket books. Teddy often memorized favorite movie lines and entertained his friends and family by quoting dialogue. He loved karaoke, and had a sweet and strong singing voice. He especially enjoyed his many summer sessions at Timberlake at the Farm and Wilderness Camp in Vermont. Teddy was also a prize-winning poet, having won a medal last year at a national poetry convention for a poem he wrote—a humorous poem, naturally.

Teddy served as an altar boy at St. Anthony of Padua Church in Litchfield, and also volunteered at the Litchfield County Association for Retarded Citizens in Torrington. LARC staff member Elaine Tedesco said that Teddy would sit down with the clients “like they had grown up together. He acted like he was their best friend, like he knew them forever.” Teddy also encouraged his classmates to volunteer at LARC....


Donations in Teddy’s memory may be sent to the Litchfield County Association for Retarded Citizens at the following address:

LARC Capital Campaign
In Memory of Teddy Ebersol
84R Main Street
Torrington, CT 06790

Federal Tax ID 06-6075006

Talk about a bright, motivated young man. Gone, so early.

great post.. touched home

The boy had a great heart and a bright future.

and the entire family.

Message for DNC, adopt everything in that article and this young mans writings as the Democratic Platform and not even rigged machines can stop us.

Me and my son are the same way, Patrick is the true star of SBSP.

I have daughters like your son. How fortunate we are to have these wonderful young people in our lives, and how tragic for these parents to lose one like Teddy.

involving the Ebersol's, who were a powerful anti-GOP family.

and the crash involving the family that owned the Hendrick motor sports team, who were unique among the NASCAR crowd in that they were a bunch of fairly politically progressive individuals...

Hmmmm....

So much potential lost..

and such a senseless loss! My son is 13, and sounds very much like Teddy with his political sensibility and even the fact that he liked Patrick on SpongeBob. I can't imagine what his parents and family are going through, but my thoughts and prayers are with them.