Theodore C. "Ted" DeLnaney was born in Lexington, Va. on October 18, 1943. In 1963, he began working as a custodian in the Washington and Lee University biology department and was promoted to lab technician a year later. He served in that position for 19 years. DeLaney enrolled at WLU in 1979, taking one course per term. He enrolled full-time in 1983 and graduated cum laude in history in 1985. He graduated with a doctorate in history from the College of William and Mary in 1995 and taught history at the State University of New York College at Geneseo before joining the history department at WLU.

Ted DeLaney married Patricia "Pat" Scott in 1973. Dr. DeLaney died in Lexington on December 18, 2020.

From https://www.wlu.edu/delaney-center/about-ted-delaney:

In 2021, Washington and Lee University named its new interdisciplinary academic center for teaching and research on Southern race relations, culture, and politics in honor of late professor of history emeritus Theodore "Ted" Carter DeLaney Jr. '85. DeLaney's scholarship focused on the untold histories of African Americans in Virginia, including his research on John Chavis, who was the first known African American to receive a college education in the United States in the 18th century and who studied at Liberty Hall Academy. In addition, DeLaney recorded oral histories of western Virginians directly involved in the battle over school desegregation 15 years after the Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court ruling. Much of his research found its way into his courses and the presentations he developed for alumni colleges, class reunions, neighboring colleges, museums and historical societies. DeLaney's own oral history is now part of W&L's Special Collections.

During his career at W&L, DeLaney taught courses on colonial North America, comparative slavery in the Western Hemisphere, African American history, civil rights, and gay and lesbian history. His popular Spring Term course on the civil rights movement took students on the path of the Freedom Riders through the South, while his course on the institutional history of W&L introduced students to archival research in W&L's Special Collections & Archives.In 2005, DeLaney co-founded the Africana Studies Program, which he directed from 2005-07 and again from 2013 to 2017. He chaired the History Department from 2007 to 2013 and was the first Black department head at W&L. He also served on both the Working Group on the History of African Americans at W&L and the 2018 Commission on Institutional History and Community.