A concurrent RESOLUTION

 

To request the Department of Transportation name Interstate Highway 26 Exit 54 in Laurens County "Col. Walter Blakely Todd Memorial Exit" and place appropriate markers or signs containing these words at this location.

 

Whereas, Colonel Walter Blakely Todd, U.S. Army (Ret.) passed away on December 27, 2012, at the venerable age of 94, following a life that spanned the defining events of the Twentieth Century; and

 

Whereas, born in Clinton on March 15, 1918, to Joseph Reed and Lucy Bell Sloan Todd, Col. Todd was a 1939 graduate of Presbyterian College where he lettered in football, was a member of Mu Chapter of Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity, and was commissioned as an officer in the United States Army through Presbyterian's Reserve Officers' Training Corps. He was honored by the fraternity for his service to the country and State in a ceremony at the college in 2008, and at his death, he was the oldest living member of the chapter; and

 

Whereas, Todd entered the U.S. Army in 1940 as a second lieutenant in the Infantry Division and was selected through competitive examination for the regular Army the following year. With the entry of the United States into World War II, he began a long, and distinguished career as a professional soldier, rising in rank along the way. On June 6, 1944, he was with the first wave of troops in the Normandy Invasion, landing on Utah Beach in France with the Eighth Infantry Regiment. The regiment saw bitter fighting in the liberation of Cherbourg, the Battle of Saint Lo, the liberation of Paris, the Hurtgen Forest, and the Battle of the Bulge, Nazi Germany's last major offensive before it surrendered; and

 

Whereas, Major Todd was in General Douglas McArthur's headquarters in Tokyo, Japan, where he served the first year of the Korean War. In 1967-1968, Colonel Todd served in Vietnam where he was the Army Combat Operations Advisor to the South Vietnamese Army. He was there during the Tet Offensive, a time of heavy fighting and intense enemy pressure throughout the country; and

 

Whereas, he graduated from the Command and General Staff College in Kansas and the Army War College in Pennsylvania. He was deputy director of instruction at the U.S. Army Infantry School at Fort Benning, Georgia, where he commanded a battle group in the Second Infantry Division. He served overseas in Japan, Turkey, and Korea, ending his Army career as chief of staff at Fort Jackson; and

 

Whereas, Colonel Todd's numerous awards for gallantry and meritorious service include the Silver Star, the Legion of Merit with three Oak Leaf clusters, the Bronze Star with two Oak Leaf Clusters, the Combat Infantryman Badge, the European Theater Medal with five campaign stars, the Korean Service Medal, the Vietnam Service Medal with four campaign stars, and the Air Medal with three Oak Leaf Clusters. He was an early inductee into the Presbyterian College ROTC Hall of Fame; and

 

Whereas, retiring from the Army in 1969, Colonel Todd became the first director of administration and later was a deputy commissioner for the newly established Department of Mental Retardation, serving for fourteen years. He retired from State government in 1983 and was awarded the Order of the Palmetto, the State's highest civilian honor, by Governor Richard Riley for his service; and

 

Whereas, Colonel Todd served Midlands Technical College in 1983 as a Richland County commissioner. He served as commission chairman in 1985 and again from 1993-1994. He also served as chairman of the Richland-Lexington Counties Commission for Technical Education, and two terms as state chairman of the Association of Community College Trustees; and

 

Whereas, Colonel Todd was very active in his community as a member of the Columbia Sertoma Club, and as a deacon and elder in Centennial AR Presbyterian Church of Columbia. At the time of his death, he was a member of the First Presbyterian Church of Columbia where he served on its Laurel Crest Retirement Center board of directors from its planning stages to its construction in 1993; and

 

Whereas, Colonel Todd was a devoted family man to his wife of sixty-five years, Rosemary Alexander Todd, who predeceased him, and their children Walter Blakely Todd Jr. and Matilda Todd Balsley; and

 

Whereas, it is only fitting and proper that this son of the Palmetto State who dedicated his life valiantly serving his country, community, and God is remembered with an interstate exit in Laurens County named in his memory. Now, therefore,

 

Be it resolved by the House of Representatives, the Senate concurring:

 

That the members of the South Carolina General Assembly, by this resolution, request the Department of Transportation name Interstate Highway 26 Exit 54 in Laurens County "Col. Walter Blakely Todd Memorial Exit" and place appropriate markers or signs containing these words at this location.

 

Be it further resolved that a copy of this resolution be forwarded to the Department of Transportation.

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