While Sylvia and Ted Wahl are relatively new to Decatur House, they already are carving out their own comfortable routine.
They enjoy hanging out in the sunroom, where Sylvia – sporting her signature Red Sox cap – nestles in a high-back chair engrossed in a good book.
Ted, however, was accustomed to a far more adventurous lifestyle, and can find it difficult to relax.
For starters, his father was a renowned horseman, and Ted followed in his footsteps, becoming an expert rider as a boy.
When Ted was about 20, he learned to parachute from a plane, and found the exhilaration of soaring through space to be addictive.
It was at the time when skydiving was in its nascent stage, and the timing proved propitious for Ted, who became an expert instructor in the new sport.
Having developed a thirst for adventure, Ted learned to pilot a plane.
“I learned [to fly] from one of the Tuskegee Airmen,” Ted said, alluding to the storied African American fighter pilots who distinguished themselves in WWII.
After a stint in the Air Force, Ted embarked on a career as a corporate pilot, flying executive jets and helicopters.
He was recruited by the aviation division of Johns Manville Corp., a major manufacturer of building supplies.
“I was hired by [Manville’s aviation chief] Bill Vanderkloot, who was Winston Churchill’s pilot all through World War II,” Ted said.
Thus began Ted’s 30-year career as a corporate pilot, flying executives and board members to destinations like Europe, Africa and South America.
“Wherever they wanted to go, I took them” Ted said.
Sylvia sometimes accompanied him, and speaks with pride of his aviating skills.
“When I flew a commercial airline, I’d tell them, ‘That was a very smooth landing – but my husband does it better!’” she said, with a grin.
After retiring from corporate aviation, Ted quickly became bored, so he learned to be an auctioneer. He can still dazzle listeners with a lightning-fast, tongue-twisting, rhythmic spiel known as “auction chant.”
Ted lowered the gavel on countless sales ranging from “pots and pans” to high-stakes political fund-raisers, where –tuxedo-clad — he mesmerized crowds of deep-pocketed donors.
Sylvia sometimes assisted her husband by working as his “ringman,” the worker who answer bidders’ questions and relays their bids to the auctioneer.
Ted also became a certified firearms safety instructor, where he taught gun safety to over 600 people seeking a firearms license. “He did that better than anyone else, too!” Sylvia said.
While Sylvia may sound like Ted’s cheerleader-in-chief, she also had an interesting career of her own, as an educator in Ted’s native Greenwich, Conn.
She taught at the very school attended by Ted’s mother, in the early 1900s.
“I started in the upper grades and worked my way down to first grade, which was my favorite,” she said. “That’s where you teach them how to read!” She later served as principal of the school for over a decade.
In her free time, Sylvia liked to be active, and Ted had just the antidote.
“He took me to the stable, and that was just wonderful!” she said. “I learned to ride a horse, and you don’t know how much I loved that.”
On snowy days, Ted would take Sylvia on romantic rides in his horse-drawn sleigh.
Sylvia also enjoyed tennis and still likes to swim. An avid sports fan, she was recently glued to her TV watching the Australian Open tennis tournament.
At its conclusion, she resumed monitoring the Boston Celtics in their quest for another national championship.
