Here is Ted, in all his heart-centered complexity, as he would most love to be remembered.

Known for his contagious high-energy, Ted loved to quote Voltaire. "God is a comedian playing before an audience that is afraid to laugh!" He truly lived in a higher perspective, above all surface drama. "If we're not laughing, we're not doing it right!" was a favorite observation and reminder to those around him. His stories published in the Chicken Soup for the Soul Cookbook address the question of where his levity and perpetual good humor originated..

"Ted was bigger than life!"

"Ted sparked joy everywhere he went!"

"What a huge personality!"

Such comments are made repeatedly since Ted's passing of pneumonia on April 13, 2021.

Professionally, Theodore S. Wentworth had a 53-year career in the law. He was featured as one of the preeminent lawyers in the United Stated by the prestigious Martindale Hubbell Law Directory, as an expert in jury selection, medical and human rights issues, sexual harassment and employment law.

Featured in Who's Who in America, Who's Who in the World and Who's Who in Law. His most known case, featured internationally in the news was as lead counsel in the University of California Irvine (UCI) Fertility Clinic Scandal, during which he appeared on Oprah, The Phil Donahue Show, Dateline and 48 Hours, and CBS Evening News.

He was an Inspirational Speaker on "Finding Our Highest Selves" & "Peaceful End-Of-Life Transition: Coming Home.

Ted had an adventurous spirit and loved exploring his own capabilities by becoming an instrument-rated pilot, an avocado and grapefruit rancher on a large scale, a yachtsman, a passionate world traveler, and businessman. He once received clearance to fly his airplane, a Cessna turbo 210 with his family through the crater of Mt. St. Helens between explosions, and even throughout Alaska. He felt nothing was too big to take on.

Ted married Sharon Lynelle Arkush in 1965 and they had two daughters, Kathryn and Christina.

After Sharon died of cancer in 1987, he determined to find, and not settle for any less than, the perfect companion for the rest of his life. This required a strategy. He married Diana Webb von Welanetz in 1989, and gained another daughter, Lexi Welanetz.

His first published book “Build A Better Spouse Trap: A Street-Smart Dating Strategy for Men Who Have lost a Love” (Foreword by Jack Canfield). Ted recognized that men like himself, who had been in a prolonged relationship and had lost their partners to death or divorce, were at a distinct disadvantage when they returned to dating.  In collaboration with Lexi Welanetz, Psy,D., he wrote to provide readers with unique insights and skills.

Besides his success in his own Law Practice,  and being revered by his peers, his greatest life pursuit was spiritual enlightenment.  It formally began when he was initiated into the Transcendental Meditation movement in 1970. Becoming disillusioned with TM’s business practices, Ted hired a man he paid to travel the world for seven years to interview enlightened masters. He knew there was a path and was determined to find it! For the past 22 years, he and Diana studied with and supported Shree Maa of Kamakya and Swami Satyananda Saraswati (www.ShreeMaa.org) and contributed  in building the temple of Devi Mandir  in Napa, California. In his second book The Enlightenment Code, Ted shared his lifelong passion for higher consciousness and the results of having traveled the world to learn from living spiritual Masters.  

Ted lived his life in a whole different vibration with an admirable zest and curiosity. He had a very unique and comforting way of looking at death; he didn’t view it as something to be fearful of, or something that carried dread with it’s reputable impending presence. He always simply viewed it as…going home. Those who spent time with Ted, or read his second book, The Enlightenment Code, knew he had this very unusual attitude toward death.  He sometimes felt drawn to sit by bedsides of the dying, telling them, “You’re going home.  Death is perfectly safe.”  He felt so strongly that he didn’t want people to be afraid of death that a few years ago, we decided to take a certification course to become “end of life” doulas.  You may have heard the word doula in relation to a person who helps a new mother transition into motherhood.  Training as a death doula is something much more intensive than being trained in hospice.  We learned to truly BE with the dying.  The purpose is to serve the dying and their family to create the most beautiful conscious passage into their next transitional realm. This just makes sense in Ted’s captivating essence. His purpose in this life was to serve those on a level of consciousness that is hard to even comprehend and to help guide all who came in contact with him. He did just that.

He was loved and he made his mark on all the souls who were privileged in knowing him.