A descendant of one of Maryland’s most distinguished families, Warfield led a storied career that spanned many fields: business, politics, government and the military. He served as a fighter pilot during World War II. In 1945, while strafing an airfield near Tokyo, his plane was hit by ground fire and he was forced to parachute into the Pacific Ocean. He floated in a tiny raft for four days before being rescued by a U.S. Navy submarine.

Warfield succeeded his mother as president of The Daily Record in 1957. At the time, the family-owned newspaper was in dire financial straits. "He got the company through the whole thing," recalls Frederick D. Godman, senior vice president of The Daily Record and a close friend and business colleague of Warfield’s for almost 50 years. Besides buoying the newspaper from financial problems, Warfield also broadened the publication’s scope. Under his leadership, the legal journal expanded to become an informative business newspaper.

On the political front, Warfield represented Howard County in the Maryland State House of Delegates from 1963 to 1970. He resigned from the House when he was appointed by then-Gov. Marvin Mandel to be the adjutant general of the Maryland National Guard, making him the highest ranking military officer in the state. He held that position until 1979, retiring from the National Guard with the rank of major general. Among his many awards and decorations, he earned the Air Medal with two Oak Leaf Clusters, the Legion of Merit and the U.S. Government’s Distinguished Service Cross.

In addition to his work at The Daily Record, and the National Guard, Warfield presided over a 1,500-acre dairy farm in Howard County. The farm occupied most of Warfield’s retirement, but he returned to The Daily Record in the 1980’s when another financial crisis struck the newspaper. "The company was losing money dramatically, and he agreed to come back and run it," says Goodman. "He had just retired as the adjutant general and he was going to relax. For the sake of the company, he took the helm. He said he’d run it military-style to get it back on track." According to William Cahill, an attorney with Saul, Ewing, Weinberg & Green, who for many years was a member of the company’s board of directors, "Were it not for Ted, I don’t know that the paper would have survived."

Also during his second term at the head of the paper, Warfield launched the monthly business magazine Warfield’s Business Record. The popular publication eventually became the Saturday edition of The Daily Record.

The Daily Record was established in 1888 by Warfield’s grandfather, Edwin Warfield Sr., who had once been a governor of Maryland as well as a successful businessman. The Baltimore-based newspaper was sold to Dolan Media in 1994.