Barbara & Kip Todd Obituary (1956

Barbara and Ken ("Kip") Todd passed away this past holiday season, Barbara on November 25th following a short battle with cancer and Kip on January 5th, of heart failure. They were married for nearly 60 years and shared both a great love for each other and many adventures. The two met and were married in Santa Rosa, California after Kip was discharged from the Navy and Barbara graduated from the University of California at Berkley. Barbara first fell in love with Kip's 1956 Bel Air convertible and later with Kip himself, despite his having graduated from Stanford University. They were married in March of 1957. Following the birth of their daughter Susan, Barbara left her career in social work to raise Susan and their two sons - Brian and Bill -- while Kip continued his career in public relations at Pacific Bell. In 1962, they moved to the Seattle area, where Kip was the editor of Cascades magazine, and then to New York City in 1964, where Kip helped produce films for AT&T. After returning to Seattle in 1966, Barbara went back to school, earning a Master's in Education in educational psychology, and started a career in school psychology that she pursued until she retired in 1991. Interrupted only by a two-year hiatus during which he wrote, directed and produced movies and television commercials with Seattle film-maker and artist Jim Coffin, Kip climbed the executive ranks at Pacific Northwest Bell, eventually becoming head of advertising. Following the split-up of the phone company, Barbara and Kip returned to the San Francisco area, where Kip continued to manage AT&T's advertising efforts and where Barbara worked as a school psychologist in the San Joaquin Valley. Barbara and Kip retired in the early 1990's, first in Seattle and then to Ashland, Oregon. More important to Kip than his successful career were the hours he volunteered in a wide variety of organizations, a partial list of which includes the Seattle Urban League (where he twice served as president), the National Urban League (where he served on the Board of Trustees for more than a decade), the King County Arts Commission (which he led in the late '70s and early '80s), and El Concilio. For her part, Barbara volunteered countless hours assisting children with disabilities, including teaching reading and horseback riding. Together Barbara and Kip acted always to further their shared belief in and commitment to civil rights and equality, as well as to education, the arts and the welfare of animals. Barbara and Kip poured love, creativity and enthusiasm into raising their children and, once they grew up, into welcoming and celebrating their children's spouses and their grandchildren. They were both parents and friends to their children and to their daughters and son in law. In the 1970's, Kip was able to fulfill a long-held goal of following the footsteps of Earnest Hemmingway in climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro, a climb in which he convinced Barbara to join him. The two also traveled to the South Pacific, to many countries in Africa, to South America and to the Galapagos Islands. Kip was honored to run a leg of the Olympic torch run in 1984. Kip is remembered for his intense creative energy, Barbara for her unflappable efforts to help those less fortunate. Both were known for their great good humor, for their love and celebration of family, for entertaining their many friends and for the generosity with which they gave their time and money. They are survived by their two sons and by their six grandchildren and are deeply missed by their entire family and all of their many friends.