Royal Theodore "Ted" Abrahamson

Ted was born October 21, 1930 in Chicago, Cook County, Illinois to Joseph Irving Abrahamson and Frances Louise Abrahamson. He resided there until he was 14 and then moved to Amarillo with his parents following the death of his elder brother, Leroy Jerome Abrahamson. Ted graduated at Amarillo High School in 1948. He married Janet Cernohouz of Amarillo on September 2, 1951 in Clovis, New Mexico, joined the US Army 10 days later and served his country during the Korean Conflict until September 11, 1953 during which time his first son, George, was born, he received Chief X-Ray Technician certification at Fort Sam Houston, Texas and was temporarily stationed in San Antonio, Texas before being assigned to active service at the US Army hospital in Yokohoma, Japan. Following his honorable discharge from the US Army, he returned to Amarillo College and graduated in 1954 with an Associates of Science degree after which he moved his wife and son to Lubbock, Texas where he graduated in 1957 at Texas Technological College with a Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering degree and during which time his two daughters, Deborah and Melody were born. Following his graduation in Lubbock, Ted, his wife and their three children returned to Amarillo where he accepted a position with the City Of Amarillo as assistant city traffic engineer. He received his Bachelor of Business Administration degree in 1963 at West Texas State College after which he was promoted to Amarillo City Traffic Engineer and his second son, Steve, born the following year. Ted resigned his position as City Traffic Engineer in 1972 and began his private consulting engineering practice that year joined by his wife after which he employed several technicians and engineers during the following 43 years that included his son, George, in 1973 who now owns and operates the firm. Ted's interests were mostly focused on traffic and transportation engineering that largely developed into his forensic and human factors accident reconstruction engineering across the western hemisphere while his firm continued large residential, commercial and industrial site development projects, a few of which include Sleepy Hollow, parts of Puckett West, The Shores, Willow Grove, Flying J Travel Center, Travel Centers of America, Williams Travel Plaza, Toys R Us, West Texas A&M Event Center, Fed-X Freight Terminal, Bruckner's Truck Center and Ben E. Keith among many other unique, challenging projects within the five branches of civil engineering. During this time, Ted was contacted by famed California trial attorney Melvin Belli who published three of Ted's accident reconstruction cases in Belli's book "Modern Trials". Ted was a licensed professional engineer for more than 55 years and a registered professional land surveyor for more than 35 years. His impeccable professional record exemplifies his life's dedication to engineering and surveying. An "engineer's engineer", a "surveyor's surveyor". His steadfast rule was no project leaves his office until it's done right - quality first, not quantity. Ted joined the Boy Scouts of America as a Cub Scout in 1938 in Chicago, Illinois and achieved the rank of Eagle Scout in 1957. Among his many other scouting recognitions, he received the Silver Beaver award and later the local scouting award he initiated, Silver Bear. He joined Troop 80 with his son, George, in 1962 following his leadership as Cub Master of Pack 35 at Alice Landergin elementary school in Amarillo. His son, Steve, was a Cub Scout before he also joined Troop 80 in 1975. Ted made certain his sons achieved the Eagle Scout rank and remained registered scouts. He was an Explorer Scout, Order of the Arrow member, assistant scoutmaster, scoutmaster and advisor. Ted was honored nationally in 2014 as one of only a historically few recipients of the Boy Scouts of America 75-year active service award. In 1944 when he first arrived in Amarillo from Chicago, Ted became the first head chief of the Kwahadi Indian Dancers of Amarillo where he studied and built his own dance costumes and learned and taught the native American Indian dances and costume building to the younger Kwahadi members at the direction of Dr. Charles Colgate and Mr. Ralph Ireland. Ted trained for competitive boxing while at Amarillo College where he was instructed by Willie Roach, a former contender for the world middleweight class championship, but set that aside after more than 20 knockouts, the last being one he knew had seriously injured his opponent. Ted was a Paul Harris Fellow member of Rotary International and achieved 40 years of perfect attendance. He made many friends throughout the community, chaired many activity boards, organized and became the first president of the Amarillo College Ex-Students Association. The list goes on and on as with most successful individuals of his distinguished caliber. Ted always put others first, giving them the opportunity to learn on their own with his guidance so they might also achieve their goals. He often borrowed a phrase from former Troop 80 Scoutmaster, Jack Bryant: "you don't have to wait to be a great man, you can be a great boy". Ted was preceded in death by his brother, his parents, his wife, his daughter, Melody, and a daughter-in-law, Janice Abrahamson. Ted is survived by his son George and wife Marci of Amarillo, his daughter, Deborah Beese and husband Kent of New Mexico, his son Steve, granddog Zip and significant other Pam Lamkin all of Amarillo, his granddaughter, April Blackwell and husband Andrew of Amarillo, and granddaughter Heather Stark of Oklahoma City.

Visitation Schedule

Cox Funeral Home 4180 Canyon Drive Amarillo, TX 79109 Sunday, November 29, 2015 2 - 4 pm

Service Schedule

Funeral Service Westminster Presbyterian Church 2525 Wimberly Amarillo, TX 79109 Monday, November 30, 2015 10:00 a.m.

Burial Schedule

Llano Cemetery Amarillo , TX

Memorial Contributions

Boy Scouts of America 401 Tascosa Rd. Amarillo, TX 79124