Tetsuo “Ted” Suzukamo, a small businessman in the Los Angeles area restaurant service industry, passed away peacefully Dec. 22 in Montebello. He was 93.
Ted, as he was known to everyone, was born on the island of Kauai. He was the youngest child of Katsuji and Shima. For the early part of his life, the family lived in the mountains of the Wailua Homesteads, where his father was an irrigation worker who controlled the canals that fed the sugar cane fields below.
The family later moved to town in Kapaa, where Ted became a multi-sport athlete — notably football — for Kapaa High School. After graduation in 1947, he joined the military and was stationed in post-war Japan, rising to the rank of technical sergeant in the Air Force.
After finishing his enlistment, he struck out to Chicago, where he met and married Aiko Kagami. The family moved to Los Angeles in the late 1950s.
Ted worked for a L.A. restaurant service company for many years before starting a two-man partnership in the 1970s with his friend, Edward Morales.
Ted was a humble man who loved humorous stories, especially about immigrants who struggled to fit into America, just like his parents. He was a dedicated family man who regularly took his four children to one of the local high schools to shoot hoops, run around the track until they got tired or toss a baseball.
He was a natural athlete so when his competitive juices were rekindled during the 1984 L.A. Olympics, he took up jogging. This led him to befriend a group of kindred spirits who all trained and raced together in Griffith Park, entering numerous 5 and 10 kilometer road races, half marathons and ultimately finishing the 1988 L.A. Marathon.
He and Aiko encouraged their children to use the public library and filled their apartment with some of his favorite books, including the historical fiction of James Michener and the westerns of Larry McMurtry.
Ted was preceded in death by his siblings, Sho Nishida, Richard Masaru Nishida, Masue (Nishida) Nishimitsu, Alice Asako (Nishida) Yonekura, Yoshio Suzukamo and Mieko Suzukamo. He is survived by his wife, Aiko; daughters, Charlotte Suzukamo of Montebello and Audrey Tina Reinhardt of Star, Idaho; sons, Leslie Suzukamo of Vadnais Heights, Minn., and Arnold Suzukamo of Los Angeles; and two adult grandchildren.
In lieu of koden, the family asks that donations be made to the charity of their choice in Ted’s name.