Obituary of Theordora Bersbach Crawford

Theodora (Tedi) Bersbach Crawford passed away on April 25, 2025, in Fairfield, CT. She was 88.

Tedi was born on March 16, 1937, in Evanston, Illinois, to Elva Riley Eitel and Theodore Brentano Bersbach.  Raised by her grandmother in Stamford, CT, Tedi spent much of her time playing outside, where she built forts and learned the names of birds that always delighted her.  She remained a nature girl.

Tedi attended New Canaan Country School in Connecticut, Westtown School in West Chester, PA, and Smith College. She spent her junior year studying French, her major, at the Sorbonne in Paris, France. By refusing to speak any English once she and her classmates set sail for Paris, she was able to speak fluent French throughout her life.

Tedi was curious about so much: nature, literature, science, cooking, art, and most significantly, photography. After graduating from Smith in 1959, she packed her Nikon F and traveled solo to the formerly communist Yugoslavia to photograph ordinary people. There and elsewhere, she preferred to take black-and-white photos and develop her own prints in closets that she turned into darkrooms. As an only child whose father passed away two weeks before she was born, Tedi experienced tremendous loss but affirmed her sense of hope by finding, and literally focusing on, beauty. She went everywhere with her Nikon, determined to explore and celebrate the world. Her photographs were unfiltered and direct, but they captured the grace, joy, and dignity of people who frequently had little: a boy playing on a chain link fence Harlem, a father and daughter—both with holes in their shoes—happily admiring gleaming toy sail boats floating in the Central Park boat pond; elderly women in babushkas gazing longingly at organza dresses through a shop window.

After Yugoslavia, Tedi traveled to Rome, where she was introduced to her first husband, Jonathan Ben Ali Haggin. Seated at a table surrounded by artists and expats, she politely introduced herself, but due to the din of the restaurant, Ben Ali thought she was asking about his drawings. He answered, and since all she could hear was the Italian word for sketchbook—blocco per schizzi—she thought his name was Blocko. She called him that for three days until he shyly told her his name was “Bali.” That settled, they traveled through Italy in a small Fiat convertible, eventually returned to the United States, and married in 1961. They lived in Manhattan and Tuxedo Park, NY, and had two daughters, Leslie and Terah. Although their first marriage ended in divorce, Tedi and Bali told their children that “love is enthusiasm shared.” True to form, their mutual affinity for art and literature helped them to sustain a warm friendship throughout the rest of their lives. They made each other laugh.

Many women of her generation were encouraged to settle down, but Tedi was both of and before her time. She sewed dresses for her children and Elizabethan costumes for the drama program at Saint Bernard’s School in Manhattan. Tedi was lucky enough to have au pairs, and she always hired students from Juilliard School, the music conservatory, because she loved and played classical piano. She hosted elaborate dinner parties on the drop of a dime.

Nonetheless, Tedi was a free spirit, an athlete as well as an artist who distrusted fussiness, loathed cruelty, and laughed at ostentation. After her children were born, Tedi worked as a freelance photographer.  One of her photos, taken in Egypt, was used as the cover for the book, A View of the Nile. She worked in the photography department of Time Inc., and her photographs regularly appeared in the Time Inc. newsletter. In 1973, New York magazine warmly reviewed her work.

Tedi met then eventually married Sam Crawford. He shared her love of adventure, and the two of them escorted their children—five in all—on hikes through the woods and on endless country walks during their year in England. The family ballast, Tedi did the heavy lifting to make it all happen, preparing endless meals, growing vegetables, and caring for an ever-growing menagerie of Golden Retrievers, ponies, cats, rabbits, goldfish, and a turtle. She built the pony shed. Her hard work was rewarded one day while she was digging up some ancient rose bushes and unearthed a full set of silver cutlery that had been buried amid the undergrowth for decades.

Her second marriage also ended in divorce, but Tedi’s strength was remarkable. She dusted herself off, moved to the Bay Area, and settled in Berkeley, California. Despite her East Coast upbringing, the intellectually rich, socially aware Berkeley was a perfect fit for her. She regularly attended campus lectures to learn more about science, joined Alliance Francaise, and worked as a freelance editor and for Phi Beta Kappa at U.C. Berkeley, where she adored talking with students because they filled her with hope. When not working, she was passionate about advocating for causes that were close to her: children and education. She volunteered as a writing coach at King Middle School in Berkeley, swung a hammer as a volunteer for Habitat for Humanity in San Francisco, and lobbied for different causes. In doing so, Tedi reminded her family that it is useless to complain if one does not personally try to make the world a better place.

Tedi is survived by her daughters Leslie Haggin Geary (Fairfield, CT), Terah Wood Haggin (Berkeley, CA), and four grandchildren. She loved them, and we love her, more than words can express.

A celebration of Tedi’s life will be held on June 15 in New Canaan, and a West Coast memorial will be planned for later in the summer.  In lieu of flowers, Tedi’s family invites her friends to consider a donation to a scholarship fund or to the Sierra Club.

For travel directions or to leave Tedi an online condolence, please visit www.LeskoFuneralHome.com.