Henry D. Todd

Henry D. Todd (August 25, 1838 - March 8, 1907) was a career officer in the United States Navy. A Union Navy veteran of the American Civil War and a longtime professor at the United States Naval Academy, he attained the relative rank of rear admiral.Efn|"Relative rank" was a personnel management process used by the U.S. Navy to award officers in certain specialty fields rank comparable to line officers at similar levels of responsibility. It applied to Naval Academy professors, surgeons, pay officers, engineers, and chaplains. He was educated in the schools of Nyack, New York and began attendance at the United States Naval Academy as an acting midshipman in 1853. Todd took command of Erie as a prize of war and sailed for Monrovia, Liberia, where he turned nearly 900 captured Africans, most of them children, over to a Liberian government agent so they could be returned to their homes. Between 1867 and 1877, Todd taught first in Brookline, Massachusetts, and later in Philadelphia. In 1877 he returned to the Naval Academy faculty, and he remained a member until his retirement. Todd later held the relative rank of commander as a full professor and head of a faculty department, and captain as assistant director of publication for the Nautical Almanac. When he was appointed director, Todd received promotion to the relative rank of rear admiral.

From 1879 to 1886, Todd was head of the physics and chemistry department at the Naval Academy. He died at his home in Annapolis on March 8, 1907. Her grandfather was John Johnson Sr. and Reverdy Johnson was her uncle.

The Todds were the parents of Mary Johnson Todd and Henry D. Todd Jr.