Obituary

Memorial Park Cemetery
Pontotoc County, Oklahoma

© Criswell Funeral Home

Leon Edward "Ed" Todd

December 13, 1938 - June 29, 2022

© Criswell Funeral Home

Submitted by: Sandy Bain

Leon Edward “Ed” Todd, a native of Ada, Oklahoma, passed away June 29, 2022 in The Woodlands, Texas. Ed was 83 years old and passed on due to complications from pneumonia.

Ed was born to Leon Harrison Todd and Frances “Dolly” Lenore Brannon in Ada on December 13, 1938. He was a 1956 graduate of Ada High School and went on to attend East Central State College, where in 1960 he received a Bachelor of Science degree in Education, specializing in Mathematics. During this same year (1960), he attended the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Mass., where he was conferred a Master’s Degree in Mathematics and Computer Programming. He also completed an executive program at Princeton University in New Jersey in 1964, where he earned an MBA.

As a young engineer and computer programmer, Ed was assigned to the United States Defense Department and worked on The Sage Air Defense System. Sage was at the time a top-secret Cold War era defensive radar system designed to detect incoming intercontinental ballistic missiles (“ICBMs”) and Soviet bombers to the continental United States. While working on Sage he was stationed in Boston, Montana, and Arizona. Ed later was assigned to the Air Defense Engineering and Services Government Communications Project “BUIC” Training Program and relocated to New York City. He next worked on the United States Government Communications Project, Defense Activities Division, involving world-wide communications, control, and warning systems. Ed later took a founding position with the pilot plant of Western Electric Telephone Company (later AT&T) in Shreveport, Louisiana. Ed was a long-time and loyal employee of Western Electric and was proud of the technological advancement he was able to help this company make.

Ed was also a United States Army Veteran, having served in the Army Reserves and National Guard. He was an active member of the Central Church of Christ in Ada as a young man and later of the Creswell Church of Christ in Shreveport where he was a Deacon and active with Youth Ministries. Ed lived most of his adult life in Shreveport until he moved to The Woodlands in 2017.

One of Ed’s passions was playing the game of Bridge. Ed was an American Contract Bridge League “ACBL” Life Master, having been bestowed this honor in 1999. He was an active member of the Shreveport Bridge Club, where he hosted and competed in many tournaments. He was also a teacher of Bridge, putting on many classes with others in the Shreveport community. In his youth Ed was also an avid runner, having completed several marathons. In addition to golf and boating, Ed’s other favorite pastimes included creative construction and repair projects, taking care of his beloved animals, and helping those around him in any way he could, especially with computers.
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