Silent Wings Museum - Robert Allen Todd

Robert Allen Todd (1920-2009), a World War II glider pilot and retired lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Air Force Reserve, served on the first Silent Wings board and was instrumental in relocating the museum from Terrell to Lubbock. A native of Fort Worth, Todd was an artist at the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal from 1948-1985. He graduated from Paschal High School and received a degree in commercial art from what is now the University of Texas at Arlington. He also obtained a pilots license from Texas Christian University.

Todd then trained at South Plains Army Air Field at Lubbock as a volunteer in the Army Air Corps Combat Glider Program. On June 7, 1944, he piloted a glider in the D-Day Normandy invasion. He flew several other missions and was recognized by France with a certificate recounting his service. He also received Holland's highest honor, the Order of the Orange Lanyard for his service in Operation Market Garden. In his later years, Todd returned to painting with oils, capturing the essence of New Mexico's missions and the western expansive landscapes with his work. Todd died on September 14, 2009.

Memorial services were to be held on September 28 at St. Christopher's Episcopal Church in Lubbock on what would have been his 89th birthday. Todd's first wife, the former Maxine Beasley, died in 1979. In 1981, he married the former Blanche Read Trammel. In addition to his wife Blanche, he was survived by a brother, Leslie Todd of Burleson, and children, Ronald Allen Todd of Scottsdale, Arizona; Steve Trammel of Centennial, Colorado; Robert Trammel and Mark Trammel, both of Lubbock, and Marie Kathrine Trammel Rowins of Austin, and eleven grandchildren.