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Memories for the making
 Richard Todd leafs through some of the newspaper clippings he saved from his trip to Washington, D.C., in 1960. Todd and 27 other high school juniors from around the state participated in Indiana’s first Rural Electric Youth Tour. The trip became an annual event. Today, Todd is a director of Jasper County REMC.
Below is a photo of Todd (he marked himself with a red arrow) and the rest of the 1960 group on the steps of the U.S. Capitol from the trip.
Memories for the making
Co-op director who went on first Youth Tour in 1960
invites busy students to seize opportunities while they can
The newspaper clippings have yellowed. The little square black and white snapshots are brittle. But the memories Richard Todd has saved from his trip on the Rural Electric Youth Tour to Washington, D.C., are still vivid and strong.
“That was my first trip to Washington,” said Todd, who was selected for Indiana’s first Youth Tour in 1960. “I was very excited about having the opportunity to go.”
He said on the trip he was most impressed with the scale of the Washington Monument and the “breathtaking” precision of the changing of the guards ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknowns. But he also noted the beauty of the gardens and the trees along the Potomac River. “The scenery and the setting was just absolutely beautiful. I can recall that as much as anything.”
Now 64 and retired, Todd is in his second year as a member of Jasper County REMC’s board of directors. That’s the same co-op that made him one of its first two Youth Tour delegates almost 48 years ago.
In 1960, Todd was just finishing his junior year at Fair Oaks High School. To win the all-expenses paid trip, he had to write an essay, “What rural electrification meant to the community.”
“Don’t give me the ‘good old days’ that Grandma and Grandpa remember,” he concluded his essay. “I can do without old-fashioned base burners, cellars for food preservation and that hot brick to warm the bed. Just give me the furnace, refrigerator and electric blanket.”
He won the boys’ division and Connie Gay Miller won Jasper County REMC’s girls’ division. Coincidentally, Miller is the sister to Jasper County REMC’s current board president Larry Miller.
The two joined 26 other students from around Indiana on the trip that was sponsored by 19 co-ops and the statewide publication, Indiana Rural News, the earlier name for Electric Consumer.
The Youth Tour traces its roots to off-the-cuff comments from then-Sen. Lyndon Johnson in 1957. Speaking at the national electric cooperative meeting early that year, Johnson, a strong supporter of the cooperative movement, suggested electric co-ops send youth to Washington to “see what the flag stands for.”
In the summer of 1957, Texas co-ops sent youth to work in Johnson’s office. In 1958, co-ops in Iowa sent a group on an actual tour. Over the next several years, more state co-op associations independently organized similar trips.
In 1964, the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association began coordinating the tour which turned it into an annual national gathering of thousands of high school juniors.
The itinerary for Indiana’s 1960 Youth Tour reads much as it does today: boarding the bus in Indianapolis, stopping in Gettysburg along the way to tour the battlefield, then heading into Washington. There, the students visited the museums, monuments and the Capitol. They also attended a luncheon with Vance Hartke, one of Indiana’s senators at the time, and other members of Indiana’s congressional delegation.
“I was overwhelmed by the whole program,” Todd said. “Knowing you were there at the White House and the Capitol and all the monuments …. You did not forget the experience.”
After graduating from high school, Todd joined the Indiana National Guard, farmed and worked for Archer Daniels Midland at two grain elevators. He retired from the National Guard as a major in 1989 and from ADM last year.
He and his wife, Dinah, raised three kids and now have seven grandkids. He’s been active in the Republican Party within his township. In 2006, he was asked to run for the REMC board.
Though his dad helped organize the REMC back in the 1930s and his uncle had served on the board, he hesitated at first. Then he decided to run. “When you live in a community, you take and take and take. At some point,” he said, “I felt you have to give back.”
Todd was elected to the REMC board in June 2006. After he started going to its meetings, the Youth Tour came up. He said the memories came flooding back — as did a sense of gratitude to those on the board in 1960 who gave him his first opportunity to go to Washington.
His experience on that first Youth Tour has made him a strong advocate of the annual event. “I think every teenager that has the opportunity to go should,” he said. “If they would take part in this trip and see in person how it all works, they would have an overall better view and respect for our country.”
He said he realizes teenagers today have incredibly full schedules with sports, school, jobs and other activities, but he wishes more would apply for the trip. He, too, was involved in 4-H, sports and church activities.
“I know they’re busy with this and that,” he said. “Money has such an emphasis on kids today. They lay aside the opportunities that are available to them. But there’s nothing more important than school and church and all these activities when you’re growing up — because you grow up too fast.”
Story by Richard G. Biever, senior editor of Electric Consumer
Go to next “Youth Tour Memories” story
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Written By: eceditor
Date Posted: 1/2/2008
Number of Views: 186
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