Takeo Hori graduated from Faculty of Engineering two years after he competed in the rowing eights of the University of Tokyo at the 1936 Berlin Olympics. In the same year, he joined the Ministry of Railways, but soon returned to his alma mater as an associate professor. After the end of World War II, Hori became president of a construction company before he started working for the Hokkaido Government. Since 1955, he held various positions as an engineer in Fuji Iron & Steel and eventually in the concrete industry.