Todd attended “Coeur de Ponthieu” in Paris, then Sheridan, Irving Middle School, and Southeast High School, graduating in 1965. The Boy Scouts were a big part of his life, reaching Life Scout with progress to Eagle Scout, but paper routes and school interfered. During the summer of 1963, he “dug” fossils in Northwest Nebraska, working with a young Larry Martin, and a not-so-young Dr. T.M. Stout. Evolution became ingrained after seeing a continuum of organisms in sequential strata. The summer of 1965 was spent at an NSF summer institute in Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, instilling a lifelong interest in Geology, Oceanography, and Meteorology. In August 1965, he entered school at Sewanee University of the South. Graduating with a BA in Biology. Dr. Harry Yeatman built a fire under Todd for anatomy and histology that still burns.
While at Sewanee, he was involved in numerous groups and activities, including the Sewanee orchestra, the German club, The “Order of Gownsman” (an academic honor society), and the Delta Tau Delta fraternity, serving in a variety of roles and offices.
In the fall of 1969, he started school at UNL, receiving an MS and a PhD. in Zoology. His thesis topic was the pathogenesis of mycobacterium paratuberculosis. While in graduate school he met the love of his life, Mary. He taught at Creighton University, and then at Doane College, where he taught for 28 years. He taught a variety of biology courses as well as several other courses from a course on Sherlock Holmes, Lock, Stock and Barrel, photography, and travel interterms.
The travel interterms included five trips to western Europe and five trips to Australia. Other achievements include founding the Wildlife and Conservation Club, founding and supervising the Doane Trap team, bringing and operating both a TEM and SEM (high-tech electron microscopes), starting “The Honors Program” at Doane (involving student research with Judy Dudley as the first Doane honor student), AAUP president and representative to the AAUP state conference, researching paddlefish, resulting in numerous publications and presentations, resulting in the online paddlefish bibliography, being co-chair of the “Paddlefish Symposium”, being awarded “Distinguished Visiting Professor” at SWA University, China and being a peer reviewer of the “Sturgeon Quarterly”.
He received numerous teaching awards at both Doane and UNL’s School of Veterinary Medicine.
Amidst all this activity, Dr. Georgi mentored three Fulbright scholars and was the faculty sponsor for the Gamma Phi Iota sorority.
Todd and Mary traveled extensively, from Machu Picchu to China, Japan, Patagonia, New Zealand, the Orkney Islands, Assisi, and favorites Albany, WA, the Pitztal, Tirol, Paris, and Florence, where driving was a contact sport. Mary was his rock.
A memorial service will be held at Roper & Sons South Lincoln Chapel on Saturday, August 19th at 1:00 pm.