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. Although Sam was distant descendant of prominent 17th century Scottish Presbyterian theologian Samuel Rutherford, Sam’s mother was a cradle Episcopalian and raised him in the Episcopal Church. Sam graduated from St. Stephen’s Episcopal School, Austin, Texas, where he played high school football and became an ardent, lifelong fan of the Dallas Cowboys. In 1962, Sam received an A.B. cum laude in philosophy at Harvard University, then studied theology at Union Theological Seminary, New York City, receiving an M.Div. in 1965.
Ordained a priest in 1966 at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, Sam served as Associate Rector at Calvary Church, Park Avenue, then left New York to serve parishes and schools in Cuernavaca and Zapopan, Mexico, and then in Austin, Texas, where he became a Visiting Fellow at the Episcopal Seminary of the Southwest. Sam later served in San Antonio, first at Christ Episcopal Church, then as Rector of the Episcopal Church of Reconciliation for fifteen years.
In 1996, Sam moved to Houston to begin his ministry at Palmer Memorial Episcopal Church. After he retired in 2002, Sam capped off his career as Founding Academic Dean of the Iona School for Ministry, a program of the Episcopal Diocese of Texas that educates men and women for the bi-vocational priesthood and the diaconate. In retirement, Sam also wrote An Introduction to Christianity: A First Millennium Foundation for Third Millennium Thinkers, on which he taught courses, as well as a monthly column for the Texas Episcopalian for 10 years. A brilliant preacher, teacher, and original thinker, Sam had a wicked sense of humor which, from time to time, evoked standing ovations from normally staid Episcopal congregations.
Sam traveled widely on his own, with friends and as Chaplain on cruise ships of the Holland America Line. Sam also always read widely, particularly poetry and history, developing into an amateur historian who found particular inspiration in the speeches of Winston Churchill. Sam could (and would) recite Churchill, Emily Dickinson and others at length, at a moment’s notice.
Sam’s gifts and skills were God given; yet he continued to hone them well into his seventies. During a public sharing of faith, he stated that there could have been no higher calling for his life than the priesthood. Through his preaching, teaching, writing and ministry, Sam brought many to know the living Christ.
theworksofsamtodd.com 