A good friend, Ted Hafer, committed suicide today. I’m a bit in shock. Coming back from tour, opening email and finding 4 different people notifying me that Ted, 42, the co-owner of The Grit, jumped off the parking deck at the corner of Washington and College.
When I moved to Athens in 1990, Porn Orchard were the big "cool" band in town. Everybody in the band was always a pleasure to run into, but Ted was particularly…..odd. Maybe a world-class prankster, even. It wouldn’t be uncommon to run into Ted at the 40 Watt where he was wearing a costume, fake teeth and a wig. No, this wasn’t a rare happening. To me, Ted was part of the old school "townie" guard in town and I always looked up to him.
Ted was always friendly and hospitable when I’d be sitting alone at the Grit on a Tuesday afternoon. He was in a myriad of different goofball bands during the 90’s: Rehash, The Germans, Canadian Invasion. Hell, he even contributed video footage to the Harvey Milk DVD "Anthem" which I released last year.
All in all, Ted was a real upstanding kinda guy.
All I know is that Ted must’ve been in a lot of pain to jump off the parking deck downtown. He is survived by his charming wife, Jessica, his two lovely children and the world famous Grit on Prince Avenue.
Ted, you will be sorely missed.
