Ted Rose was born in Roanoke, VA while his father was a student at Va. Tech on the G.I. bill. After school, he took a teaching position with Arlington County Schools. His father held several positions in the Metro area resulting in my first 20 years being spent in the Annandale Falls Church area.

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Following in his fathers foot steps, Ted also attended Virginia Tech from 1972 to 76. As is the case with many kids today, he had no idea what he wanted to do. Fortunately, his father had a friend that was part owner of a Kenworth dealership in Springfield. For those of you who are unfamiliar, Kenworth is the premier semi truck on the road today. He took an entry level job there from 1977 to 1979. In 1979, Ted was offered a similar job with Truck Enterprises Richmond. He worked there for 7.5 years holding several positions. In 1986, he was recruited by Kenworth Truck Co. to open a new dealership in Lexington Kentucky for the Worldwide Group. After getting the dealership up and running, Ted was approached by Whiteford Kenworth in South Bend, Indiana to head up their 5 stores. He moved there in 1988 and stayed for 13 years.

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In 2000, his father developed Parkinson’s disease. Since he was an only child, he felt it was best to be closer than 13 hours away to help his parents. Ted had kept up with the dealer principal of Truck Enterprises, Jim Hartman, over his time in Indiana.  Both served on dealer councils for Kenworth allowing them to get to know each other better. In 2000, his operations were stale. Jim offered Ted a position to oversee his parts operations for his 8 locations. He started with TEI in August of 2000 and remained there until retirement in December 2018. During his tenure there, he was promoted to Vice President in 2006, took over all fixed operations in 2012, and served on the Board of Directors until the end of 2020.