David Todd

Dr. David Todd spent his early years in Colorado, then grew up in the upper Willamette Valley after his family moved to Oregon. His first exposure to Lewis & Clark came with a summer church conference held on campus, when his family stayed in Stewart Hall in what was then the college infirmary and later the house-mother’s apartment.

David made Lewis & Clark his first (and only) college choice because of the overseas study program and was selected for the Mexico program as one of the first groups of entering freshmen to go abroad. His wife, Kathleen (Harris), BA ’69, was also a member of that freshman cadre; her overseas studies culminated in a senior-year experience in Iran under the tutelage of Dr. Nos Rossakh. David’s experience at a National Science Foundation Summer Math Institute for High School Students at Oregon State after high school graduation led David to settle on a mathematics major at Lewis & Clark. This presented him with the challenge of completing the four-year mathematics curriculum in the three academic years following his return from Mexico. He did find time, though, to enjoy participation in cross-country and track and field under the coaching of Eldon Fix, and to participate in student residence governance in Forest Hall, serving as Dorm President during his senior year. He was one of the first students in the programming classes that were the genesis of Lewis & Clark’s Computer Science degree program.

Shortly after receiving his BA in Mathematics, David worked for the Bureau of the Census in Suitland, Maryland, as a programmer and management trainee while waiting to enter Navy Officer Candidate School. The transition between the two entailed two cross-country journeys: First was a return flight to Portland where he and Kathleen were married by his father in the first officially scheduled wedding in the new Agnes Flanagan Chapel; next came the drive to Rhode Island for his naval officer training. David’s prior experience with computer programming led to his assignment to the Operations Control Center at Navy Headquarters, Europe. After tours of duty in London, England and Pearl Harbor, Hawai’i, David returned to Portland to begin a career in information systems development. He remained active in the Navy Reserve, serving in, and commanding a wide variety of Reserve units in Portland, Salem, and Seattle. David retired in 2001 as a Navy Captain. He remains active in several veterans and naval professional associations and is a National Director Emeritus of the Navy League of the United States.

David’s information systems career developed two strands, one in banking systems and one in higher education. He worked at local financial institutions as a programmer, systems analyst, project manager and department manager. He taught systems analysis, database design, and programming as an adjunct instructor for Linfield College and Portland Community College for much of those fifteen years. A shift to full-time academics encompassed twenty years as a tenured computer science instructor at Mt. Hood Community College and fifteen parallel years of adjunct instructorship in Management Information Systems for Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University. While at Mt. Hood he was active in divisional and college committee work, including co-leadership on the college’s accreditation team, which led to service as an Accreditation Visitor for NWCCU; he has continued with this since his retirement from teaching. During those years David continued his formal education, earning a Master of Business Administration degree from University of Portland and a PhD in Systems Science from Portland State University.

David is currently President of the Portland Rose Festival Foundation, in the first year of his 2021-2022 term. He has been a volunteer since 1974 and a member of the Foundation Board since 1989. David and Kathleen have one son, E’an, and one grandson, Henry, who live with them in Fairview, Oregon.