David Todd, an internationally recognized chemical engineer, died Feb. 1, 2012, at his home in West Windsor, N.J. He was 86.

Todd was in the Navy in World War II, serving in the North Atlantic. He remained in the Navy Reserve and retired in 1972 as a commander. In 1946 and 1948, he received bachelor’s and master’s degrees in chemical engineering from Northwestern. He earned a Ph.D. in chemical engineering from Princeton in 1952.

His career as a chemical engineer lasted 60 years —in locations ranging from California to New Jersey — and he never fully retired. Mostly recently, he was a self-employed consulting engineer affiliated with the Polymer Processing Institute at Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken, N.J. He received 22 patents and wrote more than 100 technical articles, plus the book Plastics Compounding: Equipment and Processing.

Todd was a fellow of the Society of Plastics Engineers, and received its International Award for Engineering and Technology. He was active in his Michigan community, and served for seven years on the Environmental Commission of Montgomery Township, N.J.

He was predeceased in 2000 by his first wife, Mary Boekhoff. He is survived by Marilyn Sweeney, his second wife; four children; and five grandchildren.

Graduate memorials are prepared by the APGA.

Graduate Class of 1952