Dr. R. L. "Ted" Pardy passed away on June 28 at age 86.
Ted was born in Rochester, New York, and was raised in Middletown, New York. He was pre-deceased by his wife, Ann Pardy, and is survived by his son Matthew (wife Kayli), granddaughter Lucy, and very special family friend Denise. Ted graduated from Northern Arizona University in 1964 with a Bachelor of Science degree, and later attended the University of Arizona earning a Masters of Science and Ph.D. (1966 and 1969). He moved his family to California from Arizona in 1969 and was a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Zoology, at the University of California, Los Angeles (1969-1971). Ted accepted a position at the University of California, Irvine, where he progressed from an Instructor to Assistant Professor, Lecturer, and Assistant Dean of the School of Biological Sciences (1970 to 1977).
He joined the School of Biological Sciences (SBS) at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln in 1977 as an assistant professor and retired in 2011. He studied lipopolysaccharides (lps), also known as endotoxin, in unicellular, eukaryotic algae and discovered a molecule in algae thought to exist only in bacteria. Later in his career he focused on undergraduate teaching with a well-recognized talent for captivating students in a large lecture format. He received the university's Outstanding Teaching and Instructional Creativity Award and the Distinguished Teaching Award, and he was honored 18 times by the UNL Parents' Association (now the Friends and Family Recognition Award).
"The breadth of his teaching contributions to undergraduate instruction are most extraordinary," Jack Morris, a previous director of SBS, wrote in an award nomination letter. "The remarkable feature of his total record is reflected in the balanced research contributions that include some 40 research papers, a funded research program, and a good mix of graduate and undergraduate researchers in the lab."
"The goal is to take 50 minutes and have people's lives change," Pardy said. "That is the real challenge."
He had many exciting professional adventures during his career, including field research in Puerto Panasco, Mexico; as an Instructor at the Marine Biology Laboratory in Woods Hole, Massachusetts (summers 1975 and 1976 with his family); two research trips to Palau in the South Pacific as an Invited Researcher funded by the National Geographic; and two research sabbaticals to the Research Center under Professor and dear friend, Ulrich (“Uli”) Zaehrigner, in Bostel, Germany (with Ann).
After retirement, Pardy turned to art, especially watercolor.
"My early formal training in biology involved the traditional approach of careful observation and the detailed drawing of whole specimens and structures seen through the microscope," he wrote in an artist statement on his website. "[V]isual arts, as in drawing and painting, are like science: a way of asking and answering questions."
The Ted and Ann Pardy Biology Scholarship Fund was established for supporting SBS.
"I was able to enjoy many conversations with Ted during my tenure as director," Michael Herman, director of SBS, said. "He was a great source of information and ideas, especially around education."
There will be a Celebration of Life held on Sunday, September 27, 2026 at 3:00 pm at Glacial Till Vineyard, 344 South 2nd Road, in Palmyra, NE.
