Chemist-turned-artist Ted Largman, 96, thought inside the box

Ted Largman. Photo courtesy of his family.
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Ted Largman, who died last weekend just short of his 97th birthday, defied easy categorization.

The Morris Township resident was a chemist, and a prolific one, with more than 35 patents. You can thank him for fire-proof nylon and synthetic fibers in your carpet.

He was a decorated World War II veteran, serving with the Army in New Guinea and the Philippines.

In retirement, he recast himself as artist T.Eleazer, synthesizing photography, oil painting, wood carving and sculpture into a medium he dubbed “Boxology.”

ted largman and greg olsen
Ted Largman, left, thanks Greg Olsen for describing his space station visit to the Renaissance Group at Temple B’nai Or in Morristown in January 2011. Largman, a retired chemist, started the Renaissance Group for active seniors in 1989. It has been emulated by temples across the country. Photo by Kevin Coughlin

Largman also spawned the Renaissance Group, an organization to keep seniors sharp and inspired.

One of his guest speakers at Temple B’nai Or was New Jersey entrepreneur Greg Olsen, who bought a trip to the International Space Station at age 60.  The Renaissance Group now has 33 chapters.

Largman was a public servant, too. For a half-century, he volunteered on the local environmental commission.

“I’m here by mistake,” he told the Township’s governing body in 2016, when it named a new community garden for him.

Video: Morris Township honors Ted Largman in 2016:

Decades earlier, his wife Doris attempted to do a load of laundry but the water was brown. Largman brought his concern to the environmental commission.

“When I was complaining about the water, they said: ‘You’re on the commission!’”

The water anecdote seems fitting now.

“He thirsted for life, and was always doing something and keeping himself busy,” said his son Rich Largman, who regarded his dad as his best friend.

Ted Largman, center, is the namesake of a new community garden.
Ted Largman, center, is told in 2016 that he’s the namesake of a new community garden in Morris Township.

Ted Largman was a master of re-invention, with a probing intellect to go with his wall of patents. Yet he remained unpretentious, said his cousin Merrill Brown, founding editor-in-chief of MSNBC.com who now runs The News Project.

“I just hope as he’s remembered people will recall his warmth and good cheer as well as a vast set of skills and capabilities,” Brown said.

‘I’M THE INSTIGATOR’

Theodore Largman was born in Philadelphia on Nov. 16, 1923, the son of Bessarabian immigrants. He grew up in the shadow of Independence Hall, a place that stirred his patriotic sentiments and fascination with history.

The family lived above its 2nd Street restaurant, where young Ted took his turn behind the deli counter — when he wasn’t studying in a back booth with a Hostess cherry pie, or teasing his kid sister, Evelyn. The pair shared many nights atop the roof, beholding the stars above and the neighbors below.

Largman would earn a chemistry degree at Temple University. After his wartime stint as an Army technical expert, he got his chemistry doctorate at Indiana University.

For the next 39 years he worked in New Jersey for Allied Chemical (now Honeywell), racking up patents as a senior research scientist. His portfolio included agrichemicals, polymers, improved amino acid synthesis, and numerous synthetic fibers, according to his family.

‘God Revisits Earth’ (2011), by T.Eleazer, a.k.a.Ted Largman.

In retirement, he channeled his creative energy in new directions, taking college classes and delving into art.

He won some prizes at local exhibitions, mining themes ranging from whimsical to provocative with his 3-D mixed-media shadow boxes and their elaborate backstories.

“They were beautifully crafted, with leaded/stained glass framing – adding a beautiful, richly colored, jewel-like quality that often belied the thought-provoking imagery within,” said Dr. Lynn Siebert of Morris Arts.

“He chose the titles with great care and arranged the figures and images within the boxes, created from found objects and personal mementos, also with great care – and with the intent to provoke discussion.”

Largman enjoyed poking a stick at religion, satirizing humanity’s talent for self-destruction, and subjecting conventional wisdom to unconventional interpretation.

Aphrodite, Alfred E. Neuman, Adolf Hitler and Dolly the cloned sheep made cameos in his “Boxology” dioramas.

“I like needling my community and country. I’m the instigator. I’ll cast God as an impostor. I’m a little far out. I’ll even take a position that’s not one I believe to create a discussion,” he told the New Jersey Jewish News in 2014.

Largman continues to instigate, via a virtual gallery of his works.

‘I Want You…Monica’ (1999) by T.Eleazer, a.k.a.Ted Largman.

I Want You…Monica (1999) views the famous Uncle Sam poster through the lens of Bill Clinton’s impeachment.

In God Revisits Earth (2011), our female creator returns to find “Adam and his brood have turned the Garden of Eden into a garbage dump.”

Largman inserted his father’s death certificate into a piece skewering the medical industry. Plunging figurines from the Twin Towers lend a somber cast to a poem by Rabbi Alvin Fine: Birth is a beginning / And death a destination / But life is a journey…

For a journey to span nearly a century, one needs more than good luck and good genes. Largman’s Ten Commandments for the Third Millennia (1998) suggests the secret to a ripe old age is a healthy sense of humor.  To wit:

I   I am Thy God, do with me as you will.

II Thou shall not photograph me, unless I am properly made up.

III Use my name to cure your enemies.

IV The Sabbath is for football, cinema and eating out.

V Honor thy father and mother, even if they are divorced and living with significant others.

VI Thou shall not kill, except for God and country.

VII Thou shall not commit adultery, except for lust.

VIII Stealing from the government must be done carefully.

IX Perjury, on occasion, can be helpful.

X If your neighbor is beautiful, drives a Ferrari, and has a villa in the countryside, do not covet Everything.

Ted Largman is survived by his children: Susan Slotnick and her husband, Irwin; Robert Largman and his wife, Aparna, and their children, Rohan and Anika; Richard Largman; and Michele Largman and her partner, Ron Faas. He was predeceased by his wife, Doris, and sister, Evelyn Berger.

Anyone wishing to make a special remembrance is asked to donate to Temple B’Nai Or (60 Overlook Road, Morristown NJ 07960), with a designation to either the Linda Grandis Blatt Gallery or the Renaissance Group.

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