Obituaries - May 21, 1996
Theodore “Ted” Roosevelt Ellsworth, a labor leader and health plan administrator who became an advocate for senior citizens, has died. He was 90.
Ellsworth, who spent most of his life in the Hollywood area, died April 26 of heart disease in Los Angeles.
In recent years, he had served as president or board member for such groups as the Los Angeles Commission on Aging, the International Senior Citizen Assn., the State Commission on Aging, the House Conference Committee on Aging and the Congressional Committee on Education and Labor for Problems of the Aged and Aging.
After graduating from Occidental College, Ellsworth became the first president of the Motion Picture Costumers Union Local 705 in the late 1930s.
In 1952, he became the first administrator of the Motion Picture Industry Health and Welfare Fund. He helped work out the first health and pension benefits for Hollywood craft unions. From 1958 until his retirement in 1976, Ellsworth was an administrator of public programs for UCLA.
In 1964, campaigning as a Democrat, Ellsworth unsuccessfully sought a seat in the California Assembly.
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