Theodore D. Jump, 1934-2009

Dad's obituary ran in the newspaper today:

Theodore David Jump, a retired Carroll County public school educator who used his struggle with bipolar disorder and alcoholism to counsel students and young adults, died of heart failure May 8 at Carroll Hospice's Dove House in Westminster. He was 74.

Mr. Jump was born and raised in Little Rock, Ark., and graduated in 1952 from Central High School.

After earning a bachelor's degree in the classics from Yale University in 1956, Mr. Jump began his teaching career at the Hill School in Pottstown, Pa.

While serving in the Army in the late 1950s, he began graduate studies at Emory University in Atlanta, and after being discharged in 1961, joined the faculty of the Severn School.

Mr. Jump resumed his graduate studies at the Johns Hopkins University, where he met and married another graduate student, the former Janet Bruce Beamer, in 1962.

In 1963, the couple settled in Westminster and Mr. Jump began teaching at Woodlawn High School. When South Carroll High School in Sykesville opened the next year, he joined the faculty as an English teacher.

Mr. Jump, who earned a master's degree from Hopkins, was later promoted to vice principal at South Carroll, where he remained until retiring in 1993.

"I always thought of Ted as a master teacher and administrator," said Mark D. Provance, who taught social studies at South Carroll until retiring several years ago.

"He would come into my classroom to do evaluations, and he was never nitpicky. He took his job seriously and helped me grow professionally and be a better teacher," he said. "I thought him to be more of a friend than just a supervisor."

With his deep baritone voice and sometimes severe countenance, Mr. Jump could be intimidating to both students and faculty.

"But over time, they knew he'd give them a fair deal, and they came to respect him. They knew he was fair-minded; however; if he had to come down hard on a student, he did it," Mr. Provance said.

The two shared something in addition to their love of education that brought them closer together.

"We were both going through similar issues. Ted had another side to him - it was a Jekyll-and-Hyde phase - where he became very acerbic and pompous. When he was at his best, he was terrific. Looking back on it, I now realize that he was bipolar," Mr. Provance said.

"Throughout his adult life he battled bipolar disorder, its wild manias, and its fathomless depressions," Mrs. Jump said.

"He was hospitalized and I was in therapy, and it drew us closer," Mr. Provance said. "One day, a watercolor of a turtle he had painted in art therapy arrived in the mail. In his own hand he had written: 'Slow and steady wins the race.' "

Mr. Provance, who said he was touched by his friend's concern and present, still has the painting hanging on his wall.

"I believed in his message and hung it on my wall as a reminder. It was the kind of thing he'd do. A complete unexpected act of kindness," he said.

A recovering alcoholic, Mr. Jump recently celebrated 25 years of sobriety.

"He was actively involved with Alcoholics Anonymous and his participation with AA led to tutoring nonreading adults as well as counseling fellow members," Mrs. Jump said.

"This was a natural complement to his extensive counseling work with students and young adults," she said.

Mr. Jump enjoyed acting in and directing local repertory and community theater, as well as singing in church choirs and community chorales.

When Mr. Jump was a student at Yale, he wrote drama criticism for the Yale Daily News.

"This is a very funny story: Paul Newman had attended Yale Drama School, and Ted gave him a bad review in the school newspaper," Mr. Provance said with a laugh.

Services are private.

Also surviving are a son, Theodore Jump of Austin, Texas; two daughters, Lizabeth Jump of Baltimore and Leslie Jump-Walker of Washington; and two sisters, Betty Marie Banks of Brighton, Colo., and Maxie Jones of Hereford, Ariz.