Fred Tod Jr., scion of a Youngstown founding family, dies at age 90

Tod had served on many community boards and was an expert woodworker.

Staff REPORT

YOUNGSTOWN — The city has lost one of the members of a longtime Mahoning Valley family.

Fred Tod Jr., 90, who was a director of the former Youngstown Sheet Tube Co., died Wednesday at his home in Youngstown.

Tod had strong roots in the Valley and was a descendent of one of Youngstown’s founding families. He was the great-grandson of David Tod, Ohio’s governor during the Civil War, and grandson of iron and steel pioneer William Tod.

His father, Fred Tod Sr., was a director of Sheet Tube Co. for 13 years.

He graduated from Choate Preparatory School in Connecticut and Babson Institute of Business Administration, now Babson College, in Massachusetts.

During World War II, he enlisted in the Army Air Corps and served three years.

He joined the George O. Bruce Insurance Agency in Youngstown and, along with the late Walter E. Meub Jr., bought the firm in 1952, from which he retired in 1978.

Tod held a multitude of positions in area organizations. He served as president of the Tod Foundation, a trustee of the Youngstown Foundation, board member of the Butler Institute of American Art, member of the vestry of St. John’s Episcopal Church, vice president of the Mahoning Valley Historical Society, trustee and president of Tod Homestead Cemetery Association, director and vice president of the Stambaugh Thompson Co., director of Mahoning National Bank, and trustee and vice president of the Youngstown Hospital Association, now known as Forum Health.

He also was a member of the Sons of the American Revolution and the Girard Historical Society.

He was an expert woodworker and a scratch golfer and had traveled extensively throughout the world with his family and friends.

He was profiled in a 1968 story by veteran Vindicator columnist Esther Hamilton.

Tod is survived by his wife of 67 years, Nancy Brockett Tod; three children, Dorothy Tod, Nancy (Thom) McFadden and Sallie (Paul) Dutton; nine grandchildren; two great-granddaughters; and a brother, David (Elizabeth) Tod of Youngstown.

He was preceded in death by his parents, Fred Tod Sr. and Marguerite Hubbard Tod; a daughter, Marguerite Koff; and three sisters, Marguerite Owsley, Sallie Ketcham and Katherine Johnstone.

Calling hours will be at 10 a.m. Saturday at St. John’s Episcopal Church in Youngstown. Services will follow at 11 and will be prepared by Shriver-Allison-Courtley-Weller-King Funeral Home. Any contributions are asked to be made to the church. He will be buried at Tod Homestead Cemetery in Youngstown.