Theodore (‘Ted’) Weintraub, 97, Baltimore police major and community leader

(Oct. 23, 2026 / Baltimore Jewish Times)

When neighborhood children wanted to learn baseball, Theodore (“Ted”) Weintraub taught the whole block. The boys he coached in Baltimore’s Howard Park neighborhood became the core of a little league team, the Howard Park Giants.

Later, after moving to Randallstown, he started another neighborhood league and helped organize street lighting and a community swimming pool.

For Weintraub, a police officer who rose to the rank of major and helped bring 911 service to Baltimore, public service also meant attending to the needs just outside his front door.

“Getting things done that need to be done was something that my father was very good at,” said his son, Ron Weintraub.

Weintraub, a longtime Baltimore-area resident whose career included leading emergency communications operations in Baltimore, Baltimore County and Montgomery County, died on Oct. 8. He was 97 years old.

His sons, Larry and Ron, and daughter-in-law Jan remembered a man whose dedication to work existed alongside a deep attachment to family and Jewish community.

Survived a shooting

Raised in Philadelphia during the Depression, Weintraub was the son of Benjamin and Vera Weintraub. His father worked in a clothing store. Childhood games included halfball—played with half a rubber ball and a broomstick, a game he later taught neighborhood children himself.

He met his future wife, Anita, when she and a friend were visiting Philadelphia from Baltimore. His Coast Guard service brought him to Baltimore’s Curtis Bay, helping the relationship continue. They married in 1951, Larry Weintraub said.

Before entering police work, Weintraub worked for Social Security. According to Larry, he applied for several jobs and planned to accept whichever came through first. The police department offered him a position.

Weintraub survived a shooting while transporting a prisoner, his sons recalled. The prisoner grabbed another officer’s service revolver, killed that officer and shot Weintraub. Larry said his father was wounded just above the knees.

Over 29 years, his assignments included patrol, detective work, mounted traffic duty and communications. He commanded the Northwest District and eventually led the department’s communications division as a major.

Larry Weintraub said an assignment to study emergency communications at Northwestern University in Evanston, Ill., helped establish his father’s expertise in the emerging 911 system. He returned to Baltimore and helped introduce the service locally in the 1980s.

After retiring from the city department, he became chief of Baltimore County’s 911 system. He later served as director of 911 and commander of the Montgomery County Police Communications Division.

Managing those operations demanded technical understanding and an ability to work with people. Ron Weintraub remembered his father as a leader who cared about employees across racial and religious backgrounds.

“My dad was highly respected,” he said.

He remembered the demands of his father’s early police schedule, including days when he slept after working overnight. Later, commanding the Northwest District held particular meaning because it included the Jewish neighborhoods his family knew well. Ron viewed that assignment as an opportunity for his father to serve a community to which he felt closely connected.

That commitment extended to the neighborhoods where he lived. Larry Weintraub said his father helped establish the Stony Brook Swim Club when nearby clubs excluded Jewish members. The new club welcomed everyone.

A family man who welcomed all

At home in Randallstown, Jewish communal life was literally next door. When the neighboring shul, Winands Road Synagogue Center, needed enough men for a minyan, someone would knock at the Weintraubs’ house.

Weintraub served as Brotherhood president, helped with the synagogue’s construction and handled High Holiday seating, Ron Weintraub said. He wore a mezuzah pendant and took pride in his Jewish identity.

For Jan Weintraub, who was not Jewish when she met Larry Weintraub in the mid-1980s, that identity was expressed through a welcoming environment. The family did not pressure her to convert. She eventually did, after years of study, influenced in part by her father-in-law’s example of service and lovingkindness.

He was also someone with whom she could discuss Jewish feminism and religious questions.

“He didn’t talk the talk. He walked the talk as well, both personally and professionally,” Jan Weintraub said.

His family remembered fishing outings, Orioles games, duckpin bowling and low-stakes poker with friends. He and Anita traveled widely and maintained a close circle of longtime friends.

They also traveled to visit their sons, keeping close contact as military service and overseas life took family members away from Baltimore.

When Anita developed dementia, he became her primary caregiver. After she moved into a care facility, Jan recalled him visiting more than once a day.

His affection for his grandchildren appeared in gestures large and small. He attended her rowing events at George Mason University, Larry Weintraub said. His wife remembered his support for Katie’s high school trip to Japan.

From childhood into adulthood, Katie tousled her grandfather’s hair as part of their goodbye ritual. He remained a willing participant.

Ron’s three younger daughters brought another kind of energy to his later years. During visits to his assisted-living community, they sometimes sang and danced at lunchtime, entertaining their grandfather and other residents.

Larry Weintraub, who spent 20 years performing in military bands, remembered his father taking a recording of his clarinet playing to Philadelphia to share with his sister. Although his father could be reserved in expressing pride, that gesture stayed with him.

Jan Weintraub said her father-in-law’s example continued to influence both her and Katie’s commitment to helping others. Remembering him, she returned to the comfort of his dependable presence.

“It was always comforting to know he was there,” she said.

Originally published in the Baltimore Jewish Times.