“Gentle” is the word that keeps surfacing as friends and colleagues remember Ben Teague.

The technical set director for Town & Gown Players for more than 20 years, Teague was the third victim killed in Saturday’s shooting at the Athens Community Theatre on Grady Avenue.

Aside from being a skilled carpenter and innovative set designer, Teague, 63, was often described as a father figure to Town & Gown who was involved in almost every aspect of the theatre company.

“He has held about every position on the board and he has directed, he has acted; he preferred backstage work but he has done it all,” said Lee Wenthe, a friend of Teague’s and a former Grady College professor. “I don’t think there’s a set in the last 15 years that Ben hasn’t had his hand in.”

Teague grew up in eastern Tennessee, lived in Texas briefly and moved to Athens in 1977. He met his wife, Fran Teague, a University English professor, at Rice University where he graduated in 1967 with a Bachelor’s degree in Physics.

They were married for more than 40 years, and friends said they were very much in love.

“It was a truly symbiotic relationship,” Wenthe said. “They were supportive, they enjoyed each other’s company and they were a true pleasure to be around.”

Fran Teague declined to comment Sunday evening, but released a statement about the tragedy on Town & Gown’s Web site:

“Yesterday Ben was murdered, which is hard to comprehend and impossible to accept. It was a beautiful day, however, and he was in his favorite place with the people he loved.”

Keri Epps, a student of Fran’s, said her class was cancelled before the tragedy took place because the class finished their readings early.

“I can’t imagine how she’s responding,” Epps said. “I’ve been thinking hard and praying for her and her family.”

“[Fran] is holding up remarkably well for having lost a partner of [40] years,” said Gary Grossman, a Warnell School of Forestry professor at the University.

Jeff Chen, a University alumnus and actor at Town & Gown got to know Teague while rehearsing for their most recent production, “Sherlock Homes: The Final Adventure.”

“In Sherlock Holmes, I had injured myself and gotten a couple splinters. And [Teague] was there, even before I turned around, he was there with a first aid kit,” Chen said. “That was Ben.”

Leara Rhodes remembers Teague as a teacher.

“Ben could take anybody and teach them anything about the set. He’d give you little jobs that you were capable of doing,” said Rhodes, a Town & Gown volunteer and Grady professor. “He’d make sure everything was safe.”

Teague was such an institution at Town & Gown that each year the organization gives out a Technical Achievement Award they deem “The Teaggie.”

“I cannot think of how many people that thought they could never hammer a nail or work a saw, and Ben taught them how to do that with great skill and patience,” Wenthe said.

Teague was also proficient in many languages, especially German, Russian and English. When he wasn’t busy building sets at Town & Gown, Teague was a skilled freelance translator. At the bottom of Fran Teague’s personal Web site, a small photo of Ben with brown hair and younger skin sits above the phrase: “My favorite translator.”

Teague also consistently updated his eponymous Web site with witty vignettes from his daily life, photos of friends and insight on other theater projects going on around the country.

“He was a great person, he had a twinkle in his eye,” Grossman said. “He was one of the few men I knew who was really happy just doing what he was doing rather than working toward something else which would make him happy.”

Rhodes said she was pleased that she hugged Ben the last time she saw him.

“Ben was the soul of the theatre,” she said. “We’re a family. Every time I go across the threshold [to the theatre], I’ll always remember them there.”

- Julie Leung contributed to this report.