Theodore 'Ted' Richardson, 84
Theodore "Ted" Richardson passed away on March 22, 2025. He was born on May 22, 1940, to Emerson and Mildred Richardson and grew up in Plains. He attended Western Montana College of Education in Dillon, where he met Karen. They were married on Aug. 24, 1963, and moved to Glen. After two years in Glen, they moved to Judith Gap where Ted taught seventh and eighth grade and was the high school football and basketball coach. In 1967, Ted and Karen moved to Somers where he taught middle schoolers and coached.
Ted left teaching in 1975 and began working full-time with the US Forest Service. Ted first started working with the USFS in 1958, spending the first couple of summers on a look-out and many more years on fire crews, as a crew boss, and fire safety officer. Ted retired from the USFS in 2002 but then started working for the Montana DNRC in the summers as an air observer, identifying fires and plotting routes for fire crews. In total, Ted worked more than 55 fire seasons and had many stories to tell of his adventures over those years.
In the early 1980s, Ted started a barbeque business and T-K Catering was born. He built a rotisserie out of an old fuel oil tank and cooked whole hogs, served with his famous homemade barbecue sauce. Ted and Karen catered weddings, graduations, reunions, and other events, mostly notably the annual party at Liquid Louie’s in Condon. Ted’s other hobbies included carving, wood burning art, hunting, and puttering on his Swan Valley property as much as possible. Over the years, Ted volunteered thousands of hours with the Lions Club, Elks Lodge, and Moose Lodge to serve the community. He also was with the Somers Volunteer Fire Dept. and a board member of Sons and Daughters of Montana Pioneers.
Ted is survived by his wife, Karen, daughters, Karissa Richardson and Melinda Walters, son-in-law, Jeff Walters, and grandsons, Luke Walters and Hayden Walters.
Services will be held at 2 p.m. on June 1, at Eidsvold Lutheran Church, 5935 Old US 93, Somers, Montana.