Ted Ehmann was born in Trenton, New Jersey in 1949. The grandson of the late noted landscape painter M. Frank Ehmann, he took to fine art at an early age. After suffering through schooling during the Cold Way years, Ehmann went to the Philadelphia College of Art to study painting.
He dropped out of the college at the height of the Viet Nam War and taught himself graphic design and advertising. In 1989, he went blind in one eye from a rare eye disease. The long illness and sudden blindness had profound effects on him. He remarked to friends that he saw the world quite differently. In the next couple of years, he traveled extensively, connecting to nature and wilderness. He studied Bioregionalism as well as shamanism ( native healing) teaching and sharing his insights even as far as the Soviet Union.
In 1990 why applying to the College of New Jersey to finish his Bachelors of Arts, Ehmann was offered a teaching position in the art department and was the only person to teach at the college while studying as an undergraduate. In those years as an undergraduate he double majored in art and history. He applied and was rejected by Rutgers University Anthropology Graduate Department where his mentor, Robin Fox had created the anthropology department. He accepted a graduate assistantship at the College of New Jersey and earned his Masters in Teaching History in 1994. He continued to teach both the visuals arts and the histories until retiring to Florida in 2016.
Currently besides writing histories, Ehmann conducts historical research on the prehistoric mound-building cultures that were in south Florida from 800 B.C. -1700 A.D.. In 2018 he founded and is now the president of the Charlotte Harbor Anthropological Society. The following year, he co-founded the Charlotte County Florida Historical Society. His more recent research has been on the history of phosphate mining in Florida . His book on phosphate mining history will be published in 2021 and the history of Charlotte County, Florida in preparation of its centennial in 2021. He enjoys presenting his research and narratives to archaeological and history groups throughout Southwest Florida.
As a result of the Presidential Election, November 3. 2020. the author with others in Charlotte County, FL has authored a plan for counties in the United States to secede from their respective states, and thereby from the federal union to form a "Confederation of Southern Counties". His plan entitled: Secession and Sanctuary, A Call for Action, as well as his draft for a declaration of independence, are available by contacting him.
The author can be reached by email, as well as by cell phone:
(732) 740-5055
I remember the morning when a call came into the sales office at the printing company where I was a rookie salesman. My boss said science center out by the University of Pennsylvania wanted to do some brochures. When I made an appointment, the person said that they were starting a non-profit institute. When I pressed further, I was told it was for the inventor R. Buckminster Fuller. I thought by 1981, that everyone had heard of Bucky. I mean there was the front cover of Time Magazine back on January 10,1964. Turns out even by his death in 1983, he never got the notoriety that he deserved. The logo, the catalogs, mailers and of course the cookbook (now a collectors item) were to show the head of the I.R.S. Philadelphia office, why he should have a non-profit 501-C3 corporation. He never got that status.
Synergetic Stew was the first book that I ever published. Bucky's life and work inspired me. I remember the weekend when I came up with the cover design, inspired by the French surrealist artist, Renee Magritte, a geodesic tomato complete with beads of moisture, hovering over a field. Buck loved it. We then got busy writing all of Buck's friends to supply recipes. Buck was a very modest and generous man. He would tell me about his many adventures. He dropped out of Brown University after only a year and joined a traveling circus. He had lost count of the number of patents to his name. Mostly, I remember him attributing all of his ideas and inventions to his extremely poor eyesight. Not seeing well, Buck remarked, I lived in my head, creating a myriad of mental images.