Ted R. Nelson

Ted Ragle Nelson passed away on Tuesday, January 4, 2011, at Regency Nursing Home in Springfield, Illinois. He was born on January 11, 1926, in Clinton, Indiana. He was the youngest child of Fred Lee Nelson and Bertha Hazel Record Taylor Nelson. He grew up in Terre Haute, Indiana. His parents, older sister, Margaret Nelson Neese, and his older brother Byron Dale Taylor, are no longer living.

During World War II, he enlisted in the Army Air Corps in 1943 as soon as he was eligible and was stationed in the United States until the war ended. After the war, he attended and graduated from Indiana State University, where he met his future wife, Virginia Ruth Combs Nelson. They were married on April 12, 1952 in Brazil, Indiana.

Although he majored in history and political science at Indiana State and was accepted by University of Michigan Law School, he instead began his professional life working as a wildcatter drilling for oil in Indiana in the early 1950’s. He then was trained as an instrumentation engineer at the U. S. military’s heavy water plant in Terre Haute, Indiana, following World War II. He worked on Admiral Hyman Rickover’s nuclear submarine project in Ashtabula, Ohio. Over the course of his professional life he worked for Kordite Plastic in upstate New York; National Distillers in New Haven, Connecticut; USI in Tuscola, Illinois; and finally for Central Illinois Power from 1974 until he retired as CIPS chief project engineer in 1989. He retrofitted many Illinois coal fired power plants for pollution control for CIPS from Newton, Illinois to Grand Tower, Illinois, and was in charge of the construction of the Meredosia, Illinois, power plant.

His hobbies included hunting, trap shooting, and reading about many subjects that fascinated him, including history, archaeology, and the natural sciences. His beloved wife Ginny died in 1993. He is survived by his son, Christopher R. Nelson, wife Deborah Lane Nelson, and their two daughters, Emily and Molly Nelson of Columbus Indiana; his daughter Susan Elaine Nelson, her husband Rick Fiddyment, and their children Chelsea and Andrew Fiddyment, of Springfield, Illinois and Dallas, Texas; his oldest daughter Laura Lyn Nelson of LaCrosse, Wisconsin; his sister-in-law Martha Taylor of Terre Houte, Indiana and his brother-in-law, Cletus Combs of Prescott, Arizona.

Services are under the direction of Bisch and Son Funeral Home, 505 E. Allen, Springfield, where visitation will be held on Sunday, January 9, 2011 from 2 to 5 pm. Graveside funeral services will be held on Monday, January 10, 2011 at 10 am at Oak Ridge Cemetery in Springfield.

Mr. Nelson’s family asks that memorial donations be made to the Salvation Army in his name.

Please visit the online obituary at www.bischandsonfuneralhome.com where tributes and condolences may be left for the family.