Longtime professor Bill Todd left lasting mark on campus, daughter Tylitha Whatley continues family tradition

Beloved and longtime Louisiana College Professor Dr. William Charles “Bill” Todd died July 4 in Alexandria surrounded by his family.

He was 91. Todd retired from his full-time position in 1996 after serving LC faithfully for 27 years as chair of the Department of Health and Physical Education.

He was awarded the title Professor Emeritus for his longtime loyal service. He also returned in 2006, continuing to work as an adjunct professor for another 10 years before finally retiring at the age of 84 in 2016.

His daughter, Dr. Tylitha Whatley, began her career at LC, as her father was entering retirement from his full-time service. And ironically, has now completed her 27^th year at the university.  Whatley is a professor in the Missions and Ministries department.

Todd was born in Tarrant, Alabama on December 7, 1932. He was a faithful and dedicated member of Isney Baptist Church. He served in the Army from 1951-55 and was stationed in Alaska during the Korean Conflict. He was able to attend college with the G.I. Bill.

Todd earned his Bachelor of Science, Master of Science, and Doctor of Education from the University of Alabama.

A die-hard Alabama fan, Todd became a Louisiana College Wildcat. He and his wife, Totsy Becton Todd, who met on the Crimson Tide campus and married about a year later, moved their family, including three young daughters, Pam [Todd], Tylitha [Whatley], and Mandy [Kenimer], to Pineville in the summer of 1969.

The Todds were married for 62 years before Totsy’s death in 2018.

“I started first grade here,” Whatley said. “And Mattie [Whatley’s daughter] started first grade when I was hired.”

Whatley remembered as a child going to her dad’s office in H.O. West and standing up on a chair to read the chalkboard, as she was and remains very petite.

“I would write on his board, Dr. Bill Todd, and under it, Dr. Tylitha Todd, because I wanted his job. He was always drinking coffee, checking the mail, hanging out with his friends, and had a key to the pool,” she smiled as she reminisced.

The adoration she holds for her father is evident in her eyes and her words.

“He was the smartest person I knew,” she said. “He could do the New York Times crossword puzzle in ink because he just knew stuff.”

Todd competed in all sports, Whatley said. He lettered in every high school sport, played trumpet in the band, played semi-pro baseball and had a beautiful singing voice.

“He loved show tunes,” Whatley said. “He was well-rounded.”

She shared so many memories of growing up on LC’s campus and of her parents’ investment into her and her sisters’ lives and the lives of faculty who became family over the years.

“Mandy [Kenimer, younger sister] and I shared a saxophone,” Whatley said. “Daddy would leave his office between classes to pick it up and take it to the other school every day.”

Whatley said it was her dad who met her husband, Glen Whatley, before she did, when he was a student in Todd’s class.

Whatley attended LC, majoring in economics, before heading to New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary.

After she and Glen married and moved to New Orleans to attend seminary and were living on a shoestring budget, Whatley said her parents would make the long drive down after work to bring them food, diapers and gas money.

The Todds were devoted to their family and devoted to LC.

“My husband, Dr. Joe Black and Bill were best friends,” said longtime friend Marilyn Black, who used to run the LC bookstore.  “Bill and Joe taught a summer class where they had class on camping, etc., then took students on a road trip to Buffalo River to practice their skills. They camped overnight along the way, cooked and saw interesting sights. The class was always full.  After going on that trip one summer, I determined it was more of a vacation for everyone.  Bill was a focused teacher, always wanted the best for his students and was one of the most intelligent men I knew. Friends like him are chosen by God for us.”

LCU Interim President Dr. David Jeffreys also remembers Todd’s impact on him when he was a student.

“His time here had a tremendous impact on countless students,” Jeffreys said. “I had Dr. Todd for several classes as a student and even was invited to be a part of Dr. Todd and Dr. Black’s famous Field Study Biology class. I loved his classes and always enjoyed his sense of humor. He will be greatly missed.”

Mattie Whatley Crump, Tylitha and Glen Whatley’s daughter, and Todd’s granddaughter, followed in her parents’ footsteps and both attended LC and worked there for a time. Their son, Todd Whatley, and Mattie’s husband, Jake, also earned degrees from LC.

Crump’s parents, who met as students, have now been married 41 years themselves, and like her mother before her, she grew up visiting her mom’s office on campus.

“LC has been good to my family,” Whatley said.

And the Todd family has been good to LC, as well.

One rarely sees a family remain so tight, even as the children and grandchildren grow into adulthood.

Whatley and Kenimer spent a week every May taking an annual trek to Gatlinburg with their “#fairly TODDParents,” a play on the classic Nickelodeon program “The Fairly OddParents, until mom Totsy died, and then continued the tradition with dad, #drTODDparent, through this year.

Friends and followers on social media were invited through the photographs and videos posted to experience their delightful antics and conversations—and the endless stops along the highways to eat at a Cracker Barrel or two. . . or 12.

“One year we ate at a Cracker Barrel in Pigeon Forge, and then in Alabama for lunch,” Whatley said. “We did breakfast, lunch and supper in one day.”

It got to where Todd would see a Cracker Barrel on their route, and they would have to stop.

“He would say, ‘I don’t think we’ve eaten at the Cracker Barrel,’’ Whatley said. “Daddy challenged us to get to a dozen in a day one year. We got to eight.”

He was a fun and silly father all his life, but he had great integrity in everything he did.

“He had very distinct ideas of right and wrong,” Whatley said. “And he always kept his word.”

And while she said she and the entire family miss his presence, the Lord has given her an unusual peace in knowing she will see her parents again one day.

Todd’s spirit and life lessons live on in his family and all those he taught.

When I think about the legacy that followed my grandpa through the halls of LC it isn’t about the degrees,” Crump said. “It’s about the people. My mom and I both grew up playing in classrooms on that campus. I know that my grandpa was well-loved because people I didn’t even know would come and talk to me about him when I was just a little kid playing at the school.

“When my parents started working at LC, we had students at our house all the time. They gathered to wash clothes, eat meals and hang out. A family cared for me in this way when I was away from home as a young adult, and I suddenly understood that none of those students in my house growing up really needed to wash clothes. They just needed someone to make them feel at home. And that is the legacy of my grandpa. It is the legacy carried on by my mom, who still hosts students at her house on a regular basis. It is the legacy that I hoped to honor when I was working at LC. Somewhere deep in my bones, I knew that the biggest needs that students had were to be truly seen and truly loved.”

Crump said the tributes that some of his former students shared at his memorial service made her even more proud of her grandfather.

“I cried hearing stories at my grandpa’s funeral from students who felt like he had cared deeply for them,” she said, “not just because his story had ended, but because in a way that is possibly more significant, it hadn’t. Because no matter where we go from here, we are a family that believes in people. And although there are a lot of degrees in our family that followed Dr. Todd’s, there are even more people whose lives have been touched by his belief in them. I walked across a stage at LC twice with him watching. Now I’ve hung up my cap and hood, but the legacy that started with my grandpa of caring deeply and investing fully in people is with me forever. He was a person who encouraged people to reach their potential. I can still hear him encouraging me to reach mine. I probably always will.”