It is with deep sadness that we share the passing of Theodore (Ted) John Milford Hahn, MD, Professor of Medicine in the Divisions of Endocrinology and Geriatrics at UCLA Department of Medicine. Dr. Hahn passed away on February 16, 2026—his 86th birthday—following a prolonged illness that began after a COVID-19 infection. He was a loving husband, father, grandfather, brother, teacher, and friend, and a warm and kind man whose deep intellectual curiosity shaped both his life and his work.

Dr. Hahn was born and raised in the Mt. Washington neighborhood of Baltimore in1940 to Odessa Milford Hahn and Theodore Hahn. He earned his undergraduate degree from Princeton University, where he rowed on the varsity crew team, and received his medical degree in 1964 from Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. It was there that he met his laboratory partner and future spouse, Dr. Bevra H. Hahn. They married in May 1964, shortly after graduating from medical school, beginning a partnership in life and science that spanned more than six decades.

He completed his internship and residency at Barnes Hospital at Washington University School of Medicine from 1964 to 1966. From 1966 to 1968, Dr. Hahn served as a commissioned officer in the United States Public Health Service Commissioned Corps, with the rank of Senior Assistant Surgeon, assigned to the National Institutes of Health. He later returned to Washington University for additional fellowship training in metabolism. He and his wife remained in St. Louis as attending physicians before relocating in 1983 to join the faculty at UCLA and the West Los Angeles VA Medical Center.

Over nearly four decades of service, Dr. Hahn built a distinguished career as a physician-scientist, educator, and leader at the VA Greater Los Angeles Healthcare System. He served as Professor of Medicine, Chief and Chair of Geriatrics, and Director of the VA/UCLA GRECC (Geriatrics Research, Education and Clinical Center), dedicating his work to improving the care of older veterans.

An internationally respected investigator in bone biology, Dr. Hahn maintained continuously funded research laboratories supported by sixty-five grants from the National Institutes of Health and the Veterans Administration. He authored more than one hundred scientific papers and twenty book chapters and contributed to the development of novel treatments for osteoporosis. He trained fellows in endocrinology and mentored generations of medical students and residents, earning a reputation as both a rigorous scientist and a generous teacher.

His honors included the VA Goodwin-Beck Geriatric National Leadership Award and the VA Greater Los Angeles System Faculty Outstanding Achievement Award. Yet those closest to him remember most his integrity, steadiness, and genuine kindness.

Beyond medicine, he enjoyed snow skiing, beach walks, astronomy, and driving his red BMW through the California hills. Even as a student at Princeton, he would visit the campus planetarium during off hours to use the telescope—an early reflection of the curiosity that defined his life.

He is survived by his wife, Dr. Bevra Yvonne Hannahs Hahn of Brentwood, California; his daughters, Alysanne Yvonne Hahn of Canoga Park, California, and Dr. April Hahn Lange and her husband, Randy Lange, of Carlsbad, California; his grandsons, Trennan Theodore Lange and Dylan Randall Lange; and his brother, Dr. Davis Milford Hahn and his wife Dr. Anne Peter Hahn and their sons William Hahn and John Hahn and grandson Mason Hahn of Lutherville, Maryland.

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