Anderson Todd ’43 *49

Andy died Dec. 21, 2018, peacefully at home in Houston, Texas. He was 97. 

Andy prepped at St. George’s School in Newport, R.I., where he participated in football, wrestling, crew, and soccer. At Princeton he played soccer and lettered in 150-pound football, 150-pound crew, and wrestling. He was a member of the Madison Debating Society and Colonial Club. He graduated with honors in architecture.

After four years in the Navy during World War II, when he captained a submarine chaser in the South Pacific, he returned to Princeton for an MFA in architecture. In 1949 Andy was recruited by Rice University, where he remained until his retirement in 1991. In Houston he met and married Lucie Wray in 1953, and together they raised two children, Emily and David (Andy and Lucie later divorced). In the 25th-reunion yearbook Andy remarked that when he arrived in Houston, it was “the Bayou City” of only 450,000 people. Eighteen years later, it was a city known as “the Space City,” which he had grown to love. 

During his years at the Rice School of Architecture (RSA) as a professor, director, and acting dean, Andy influenced generations of architects and was a leader among those who embraced modernism at Rice and throughout Houston. His professional accomplishments are detailed in Counting,a book published by the RSA.

In 1992 Andy married Iris Gracey Todd, who collaborated with him on his final projects. He is survived by Iris; his children, Emily Todd ’79 and David Todd ’81 and his wife, Wendy; stepchildren Michael Lawrence, David Lawrence and his wife, Cheryl, and Tamara Roberts and her husband, Johnny; and four grandchildren.