Ex-Northport lawyer, WWII vet Theodore Bushell dead at 91

Theodore Bushell, a former Marine, Northport attorney and versatile athlete who once tried out for a major league baseball team, died of pneumonia Jan. 27, his family said. He was 91.

Born in Brooklyn in 1924, Bushell moved with his family to Northport in 1932 and attended Northport High School, where he was captain of the football, basketball and baseball teams on his way to earning 10 varsity letters, his family said. Bushell’s athletic career culminated with his trying out for the St. Louis Browns professional baseball team, which has since become the Baltimore Orioles.

Bushell never played in a professional game, according to his family, but always relished his brush with the big leagues.

After graduating from high school in 1942, Bushell attended Princeton University and Drew University in Madison, New Jersey. He later received his law degree from New York University. He also served stateside in the Marine Corps from 1943 to 1945.

After the war, Bushell returned to New York and took the bar exam, gaining admittance to the state bar in 1951, his family said. He joined his father William’s legal practice at 7 Bayview Ave. in Northport, an office building in which Theodore Bushell would work for the next 60 years, mostly handling real estate contracts, his family said.

Bushell belonged to the Northport Rotary Club, the American Legion, and the Freemasons, among other organizations, his family said. He also served as police justice for Northport Village and belonged to St. Paul’s United Methodist Church in Northport. An avid reader of Civil War history, Bushell was a former president of the Civil War Round Table of New York City, and visited every major battlefield from the war at least once, according to his son, Doug Bushell, of San Francisco.

Theodore Bushell took his family on trips to different historical sites connected to the war each summer; a real world history lesson and family vacation rolled into one, his kids said. “The number of things he was involved in was kind of mind boggling,” Doug Bushell said.

Theodore Bushell was preceded in death by his wife of 50 years, Elizabeth. He is survived by three children, Janet, of Huntington, Lynn, of Tampa and Doug, of San Francisco; and four grandchildren. A funeral service was held Jan. 30 at St. Paul’s United Methodist Church in Northport, followed by interment at Northport Rural Cemetery, with military honors, Bushell’s family said.

The family asks that donations in Bushell’s memory be made to St. Paul’s United Methodist Church, 270 Main St. Northport, N.Y. 11768.