Harold Todd, or as most of us know him, Petty officer Todd, is a beloved member of our YMLA dream team. Coming from a little town in east Texas named Crockett, he had 3 brothers but would soon move to Kansas city, Missouri. They all went to Paseo high school at the beginning of the integration era in 1963. His graduating class was the first integrated class at Paseo and in his words “It was probably the strongest of any class they had”. After high school, he went to Lincoln university. He majored in music therapy but later changed to photojournalism before dropping out. After dropping out, he served 20 years, 6 days, and 15 hours in the navy. His time in the navy was a time of growth and development. The navy kept him out of a lot of trouble and the controlled freedom the navy gave him helped him become who he is today. While he was in the navy he worked on electronics in communications, aircraft simulators, and radar systems for an aircraft system. He also worked as a recruiter, career counselor, as well as security. He was also responsible as the leading petty officer for a division of 120 people. Now he’s married with 4 daughters.
He came to YMLA because he was looking for an interesting job that paid well and a friend of his told him about ROTC. after his second interview, he got the job. Getting YMLA as his school was luck of the draw between 5 different schools that needed a jcc teacher. When it came time to pull straws, Mr. white pulled the right straw and Todd ended up here in 2022.
At the YMLA, he teaches JCC. in his words, “JCC is a very unusual class because it develops people using a military mindset. The class helps develop self discipline, self respect, personal responsibility, and self control. It also helps English and math proficiency. It’s a homeroom class with a military mindset.”
He believes that YMLA is special because it’s an all male school and there’s not many of those these days. He also believes our school is special because of the focus, the purpose, and the brand. It’s not easy being an instructor though because you have to differentiate between the different personalities and types of people here. He also thinks this school is almost a potential threat to a society that tries to feminize and minimize manhood. It’s a threat to those who perpetuate the mindset that minimizes men. “We’re the threat because we are turning young boys into young men and giving them all the tools they need in the world”.
Outside of school he is a pastor of a church in his hometown of Crockett Texas. He has also edited one of his mentors books “Eyes eyes of Joshua” by Dr Donald D Ford. he also likes to bowl.
When I asked him what he thought of our website, he had this to say. “I think you’ve got an interesting website. It keeps you on the edge of your toes. It’s got some unique articles in it, so you never know exactly what you’re going to get. It’s kind of like a box of chocolates.”
A quote he lives by is one of his own actually. “Where there is no way, we create one!” – Harold Todd. He believes this quote represents YMLA well because we bring young men who are really far in the fog and we build them to get out of it.
Even though he is from a long time ago, he is quite suited to teach our scholars of today.
