Pedersen, Ted (Theodore), 1905-1990.

Theodore "Ted" Pedersen, son of well-known whaler and arctic coastal trader Captain Christian T. Pedersen, was born on Samalga Island in the Aleutians in 1905. He was a resident at the Jesse Lee Home in Dutch Harbor, Unalaska Island, until 1916, when his father took him aboard the whaler Herman as a cabin boy. Beginning in 1922, he attended Mount Hermon School in Massachusetts. After completing his education, Pedersen worked as a lighthouse keeper at Cape St. Elias on Kayak Island (1927) and Cape Sarichef on Unimak Island (1929-1934). He was aboard his father's last arctic coastal trading trip on the Patterson out of San Francisco, California, in 1935. Pedersen moved to California in 1936, where he worked at several light stations. He married his second wife, Elsa, in 1942, and the couple later returned to Alaska and homesteaded at Bear Cove on Kachemak Bay, in 1945. Pedersen's later years were spent harvesting clams and shrimp, fishing for salmon, and working as a ship's pilot in the Aleutians, among other activities. During his life in Alaska, he documented his activities and those of his father with photographs and motion picture film. Ted Pederson died in Homer in 1990.

Ted Pedersen was born in 1905 on Samalga Island, Alaska. His father, Christian T. Pedersen, was a Norwegian whaler and fur trader; his Aleut mother died in 1906. Ted lived at the Jesse Lee Home in Dutch Harbor until 1916, when his father hired him to work onboard the whaler, HERMAN. In 1921, Ted was sent to Mount Hermon school in Massachusetts. Afterward, he worked as a lighthouse keeper at Cape St. Elias and Cape Sarichef, Alaska. Through the years, Ted married several times and continued to work as a lighthouse keeper and marine pilot. He retired in 1985 and died in Homer, Alaska on August 15, 1990.