Minah, Theodore W., 1909-1991.

Heodore W. "Ted" Minah, was the Director of Duke University Dining Halls from 1946-1974. Over his 28 years at Duke, Minah worked hard to serve the best quality food at as low a price as possible without incurring deficit to the University. By his retirement in 1974, Minah had transformed the dining halls at Duke University from a small operation to an operation of 12 dining halls serving approximately 15,000 meals per day.

From the description of Theodore W. "Ted" Minah Records and Papers, 1941-1975 and undated. (Duke University Library). WorldCat record id: 243467272

Theodore W. Ted Minah, was the Director of Duke University Dining Halls from 1946-1974. Minah came to Duke at a time when it was necessary to convert the feeding operations from a war-time basis to that of feeding 5,000 students, and at a time where the situation of the dining halls was less than appealing. Over the next 28 years, Minah worked hard to serve the best quality food at as low a price as possible without incurring deficit to the University. During his tenure, he was responsible for many innovations to university dining services including establishing a food credit system, developing a program for student employees - where they recruited, trained and gave students opportunities to become head waiters and waitresses, and creating free-flow service counters which eliminated waiting lines in the cafeterias. Minah was also increased the capacity of dining halls to accommodate the growing number of students, including remodeling existing cafeterias into the University Room, Blue & White Room, and Cambridge Inn, and overseeing the construction of the award winning Gilbert-Addoms and Graduate Center dining halls.

Minah's career weathered the 1968 dining hall strike for "decent living wages" and several student food boycotts, including grapes (1969), lettuce (1972), and meat (1973). Despite these boycotts, Minah worked tirelessly to support and meet the needs of the students on both East and West campuses. In addition to his relationships with students, Minah also strongly supported his employees (a larger percentage of the employees were African American) by providing on-the-job training, finding summer jobs in North Carolina and out-of-state resorts, enabling them to combine vacation with extra income, and by providing the avenues for promotion into supervisory and cashier positions.

By his retirement in 1974, Minah had transformed the dining halls at Duke University from a small operation to an operation of 12 dining halls serving approximately 15,000 meals per day. Ted Minah died in 1991 at the age of 82.

From the guide to the Theodore W., Ted, Minah Records and Papers, 1941-1975 and undated, (University Archives, Duke University)