South Carolina H 5543: Col. Walter Todd Exit

Bill Text

2025-2026 Bill 5543 Text of Previous Version (Apr. 29, 2026) - South Carolina Legislature Online 

South Carolina General Assembly
126th Session, 2025-2026

Bill 5543

Indicates Matter Stricken
Indicates New Matter

(Text matches printed bills. Document has been reformatted to meet World Wide Web specifications.)

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.

Whereas, 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

Whereas, 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

Whereas, 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

Whereas, 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

Whereas, 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

Whereas, 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

Whereas, 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

Whereas, 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 plannin