SAMUEL RUTHERFORD TODD, JR.
1940-2019
Samuel Rutherford Todd, Jr., was born in Columbia, South Carolina on July 5, 1940, the only child of Jane Beverley Cathcart Todd and Colonel S. R. Todd, Sr. Sam attended St. Stephen’s Episcopal School, Austin, Texas, graduating in 1958, obtained an A.B. cum laude in philosophy at Harvard University in 1962, and studied theology at Union Theological Seminary, New York City, receiving an M.Div. in 1965. Ordained an Episcopal priest in 1966 at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, he served as Associate Rector at Calvary Church, Park Avenue. Sam then left New York to serve parishes and schools in Cuernavaca and Zapopan, Mexico, and Austin, Texas, where he became a Visiting Fellow at the Episcopal Seminary of the Southwest. He later served in San Antonio at Christ Episcopal Church and, for 15 years, as Rector of the Episcopal Church of Reconciliation.
In 1996, Sam moved to Houston and began his ministry at Palmer Memorial Episcopal Church. He retired from Palmer, then was appointed Founding Academic Dean of the Iona School for Ministry, a program of the Diocese of Texas that educates men and women for the diaconate and for bi-vocational priesthood. He also wrote a monthly column for the Texas Episcopalian for 10 years.
A brilliant preacher, teacher, and original thinker with a wicked sense of humor, Sam wrote An Introduction to Christianity: a First Millennium Foundation for Third Millennium Thinkers, on which he taught courses. He read widely, particularly poetry and history, developing into an amateur historian who found inspiration in Winston Churchill’s speeches; he could (and would) recite Churchill, Emily Dickinson, and others at length. He enjoyed playing high school football at St. Stephen’s, where he became an ardent, lifelong fan of the Dallas Cowboys. A group of Sam’s friends are publishing Something Must Have Happened, A Journey Through the Church Year in Sermons, 60 sermons that Sam handpicked for the book before his death. Publication of a collection of articles and columns that Sam wrote is also planned.
Sam was preceded in death by his beloved wife of 42 years, the former Sara Ann Sanborn. He is survived by their daughter Miranda and granddaughter Ellie Todd (Austin); by his children from his first marriage, Samuel Rutherford Todd, III (Dripping Springs), Peter C. Todd (Austin), and Elisa Todd Ellis (Sherman Oaks, Ca) and her son, Sam’s grandson Julius Roth; by his first wife Lucy Ritter Todd (Bastrop); and by his Cathcart cousins, whom he loved as brothers and sisters.
Services will be held at 10:00 a.m. on Saturday, November 2, 2019, at Palmer Memorial Episcopal Church, 6221 Main St., Houston, Texas, The Rt. Rev’d C. Andrew Doyle presiding. A reception will follow immediately. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made in Sam’s memory to the Endowment Fund of Palmer Memorial Episcopal Church or to the Texas Scottish Rite Hospital for Children, which has provided prosthetics for Sam’s granddaughter since her birth.