Col. Walter Todd Exit

2025-2026 Bill 5543: Col. Walter Todd Exit - South Carolina Legislature Online

South Carolina General Assembly
126th Session, 2025-2026
Download
This Bill
in Microsoft Word Format
Indicates Matter Stricken
Indicates New Matter
H. 5543
STATUS INFORMATION
Concurrent Resolution
Sponsors: Reps. Gilliam and Bernstein
Document Path: LC-0559CM-GT26.docx
Introduced in the House on April 16, 2026
Currently residing in the Senate
Summary: Col. Walter Todd Exit
HISTORY OF LEGISLATIVE ACTIONS

Date

Body

Action Description with journal page number

4/16/2026

House

Introduced (
House Journal-page 5
)

4/16/2026

House

Referred to Committee on
Invitations and Memorial Resolutions
(
House Journal-page 5
)

4/29/2026

House

Committee report: Favorable
Invitations and Memorial Resolutions
(
House Journal-page 176
)

4/30/2026

House

Adopted, sent to Senate (
House Journal-page 130
)

View the latest
legislative information
at the website
VERSIONS OF THIS BILL
04/16/2026
04/29/2026

Committee Report

April 29, 2026

H. 5543

Introduced
by Reps. Gilliam and Bernstein

S. Printed 4/29/26--H.

Read the first time April 16, 2026

________

The committee on House Invitations
and Memorial Resolutions

To whom was referred a Concurrent Resolution (H.
5543) to request the Department of Transportation name Interstate Highway 26
exit 54 in Laurens County "Col. Walter Blakely Todd Memorial Exit" and place
appropriate markers, etc., respectfully

Report:

That they have duly and carefully considered
the same, and recommend that the same do pass:

DENNIS MOSS for Committee.

_______

A concurrent RESOLUTION

To request the Department of Transportation name
Interstate Highway 26 Exit 54 in Laurens County "Col. Walter Blakely Todd Memorial
Exit" and place appropriate markers or signs containing these words at this
location.

W
hereas, Colonel Walter
Blakely Todd, U.S. Army (Ret.) passed away on December 27, 2012, at the
venerable age of 94, following a life that spanned the defining events of the
Twentieth Century; and

W
hereas, born in
Clinton on March 15, 1918, to Joseph Reed and Lucy Bell Sloan Todd, Col. Todd
was a 1939 graduate of Presbyterian College where he lettered in football, was
a member of Mu Chapter of Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity, and was commissioned as an
officer in the United States Army through Presbyterian's Reserve Officers'
Training Corps. He was honored by the fraternity for his service to the country
and State in a ceremony at the college in 2008, and at his death, he was the
oldest living member of the chapter; and

W
hereas, Todd entered
the U.S. Army in 1940 as a second lieutenant in the Infantry Division and was
selected through competitive examination for the regular Army the following
year. With the entry of the United States into World War II, he began a long,
and distinguished career as a professional soldier, rising in rank along the
way. On June 6, 1944, he was with the first wave of troops in the Normandy
Invasion, landing on Utah Beach in France with the Eighth Infantry Regiment. The
regiment saw bitter fighting in the liberation of Cherbourg, the Battle of Saint
Lo, the liberation of Paris, the Hurtgen Forest, and the Battle of the Bulge, Nazi
Germany's last major offensive before it surrendered; and

W
hereas, Major Todd was
in General Douglas McArthur's headquarters in Tokyo, Japan, where he served the
first year of the Korean War. In 1967-1968, Colonel Todd served in Vietnam
where he was the Army Combat Operations Advisor to the South Vietnamese Army.
He was there during the Tet Offensive, a time of heavy fighting and intense
enemy pressure throughout the country; and

W
hereas, he graduated
from the Command and General Staff College in Kansas and the Army War College
in Pennsylvania. He was deputy director of instruction at the U.S. Army
Infantry School at Fort Benning, Georgia, where he commanded a battle group in
the Second Infantry Division. He served overseas in Japan, Turkey, and Korea,
ending his Army career as chief of staff at Fort Jackson; and

Whereas,
Colonel Todd's numerous awards for gallantry and meritorious service include
the Silver Star, the Legion of Merit with three Oak Leaf clusters, the Bronze
Star with two Oak Leaf Clusters, the Combat Infantryman Badge, the European
Theater Medal with five campaign stars, the Korean Service Medal, the Vietnam
Service Medal with four campaign stars, and the Air Medal with three Oak Leaf
Clusters. He was an early inductee into the Presbyterian College ROTC Hall of
Fame; and

W
hereas, retiring from
the Army in 1969, Colonel Todd became the first director of administration and
later was a deputy commissioner for the newly established Department of Mental Retardation,
serving for fourteen years. He retired from State government in 1983 and was awarded
the Order of the Palmetto, the State's highest civilian honor, by Governor
Richard Riley for his service; and

W
hereas, Colonel Todd served
Midlands Technical College in 1983 as a Richland County commissioner. He served
as commission chairman in 1985 and again from 1993-1994. He also served as chairman
of the Richland-Lexington Counties Commission for Technical Education, and two
terms as state chairman of the Association of Community College Trustees; and

W
hereas, Colonel Todd
was very active in his community as a member of the Columbia Sertoma Club, and
as a deacon and elder in Centennial AR Presbyterian Church of Columbia. At the
time of his death, he was a member of the First Presbyterian Church of Columbia
where he served on its Laurel Crest Retirement Center board of directors from
its planning stages to its construction in 1993; and

W
hereas, Colonel Todd
was a devoted family man to his wife of sixty-five years, Rosemary Alexander
Todd, who predeceased him, and their children Walter Blakely Todd Jr. and
Matilda Todd Balsley; and

W
hereas, it is only
fitting and proper that this son of the Palmetto State who dedicated his life
valiantly serving his country, community, and God is remembered with an
interstate exit in Laurens County named in his memory. Now, therefore,

B
e it resolved by the House
of Representatives, the Senate concurring:

T
hat the members of the
South Carolina General Assembly, by this resolution, request the Department of
Transportation name Interstate Highway 26 Exit 54 in Laurens County "Col.
Walter Blakely Todd Memorial Exit" and place appropriate markers or signs
containing these words at this location.

B
e it further resolved that
a copy of this resolution be forwarded to the Department of Transportation.

----XX---

This web page was last updated on April 29, 2026 at 11:09 PM