Merritt Todd Cooke III ’42

Todd Cooke, our class valedictorian, prominent executive, revered civic leader, and music aficionado, died Oct. 15, 2004, at home in Bryn Mawr, Pa.

An outstanding scholar at St. George's School, at Princeton Todd gained highest honors and election to Phi Beta Kappa in English and in the Divisional Program of the Humanities. He was a member of Ivy Club. After serving during World War II in the Army in communications and cryptography, Todd matriculated at MIT and earned a master's in city planning.

During the next 15 years he was successively city planner for Philadelphia and executive director of the Delaware Planning Commission. In the meantime he had married Mary "Polly" Marshall Toland, and they had Mary Marshall and Merritt Todd IV. Polly died in 1951. In the second phase of his career Todd rose to vice president of the First Pennsylvania Banking and Trust Co. and, in the third and final phase, Todd was chairman and CEO of Meritor Financial Group.

Todd's greatest legacy was as a devoted and loyal board member of many civic and business groups. He will long be remembered as a former president of the Philadelphia Orchestra and chairman of the Curtis Institute of Music.

To Todd's wife, Margaret "Peggy" Groome, and his children, the class extends deepest condolences.

The Class of 1942