Obituary

Hannah, Lee Theodore (Ted)

Former Plainview, Texas, resident, Lee Theodore "Ted" Hannah, died on Tuesday, December 1, 2015.

He was born in Seymour, Texas, on February 13, 1933. The family moved to Plainview, Texas, in August 1933. He was the son of the late Allen Theodore Hannah and Mable Claire Parker Hannah of Plainview, and the brother of the late Beverly Sue Hannah Townsend of Des Moines, Iowa. He was married to Patsy Lee Bohn of Union Bridge, Md., in July 1957.

Following graduation from Plainview High School in 1951, he attended Texas Tech in Lubbock, being graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in Chemical Engineering in 1956. After a brief employment with E.I. DuPont in Newport, Del., Hannah entered the U.S. Army as a Second Lieutenant. He served as an armed, safety and security escort officer in the Army's Technical Escort Unit (TEU), Army Chemical Center, Maryland, for almost 21 months, escorting hazardous chemical agent munitions by truck and rail and biological agents by four-engine U.S. Air Force plane. He performed the duties of officer in charge of the TEU emergency radiation monitoring team. He also participated in chemical agent and explosive munitions disposal, including the destruction of German nerve agent-filled 250-kilogram bombs that had been shipped to the United States following World War II. In May of 1957, he qualified for his parachutist wings in airborne training at Fort Benning, Ga. He served two years on active duty and 28 in the U.S. Army Reserves, retiring as a Major.

Upon release from active duty, he returned to Texas Tech on a teaching fellowship and was graduated with a Master of Science degree in Chemical Engineering (Nuclear Engineering Option) in 1960. Mr. Hannah was then employed at the Bettis Atomic Power Laboratory (a division of Westinghouse Electric), near Pittsburgh, Pa. While there, he was a member of the design team involved in design of the replacement nuclear cores for the aircraft carrier "U.S.S. Enterprise" and cruiser "U.S.S. Long Beach." In 1964, he became an employee of the Department of Defense at Aberdeen Proving Ground, Md., participating in the design, construction and operation of the Army Pulse Radiation Facility. The facility was used to evaluate the pulse radiation effects on electronic equipment for the Departments of Army and Navy.

After four years of night school, he received the Juris Doctor (law) degree from the University of Maryland in 1971. From 1973 through 1982, Mr. Hannah had a private law practice and served as a part-time assistant county attorney for Harford County, Md. He served at various times as attorney to the Department of Parks and Recreation, Planning and Zoning, Public Works and Social Services, as well as legal advisor to the County Council. He returned to federal service in 1982 as an engineer and operational research analyst in several organizations at Aberdeen Proving Ground, Md. Duties involved evaluation of military systems for their ability to survive nuclear and chemical warfare environments. He retired from federal service on June 30, 2000.
He had been a member of First Presbyterian Church of Bel Air, Md., since 1993, singing in the contemporary service choir and serving on the Plan 2000 Action Committee and the Pastor Nominating Committee.

Interment will be at the Memorial Park Cemetery, Plainview, Texas, near the airfield where he earned his private pilot's license.

He is survived by his wife, Patsy Lee Bohn Hannah of Hanover; his brother-in-law, Ronald M. Townsend of West Des Moines, Iowa; two nieces, Ronda Sha Townsend Olive of Keller, Texas, and Keeci Marie Townsend Sjoberg of Pewaukee, Wis.; two nephews, Kippy Lee Townsend of Park Ridge, Ill., and Jade McAllen Townsend of New York, N.Y.