Forward thinking and well-spoken, Dr. Jean Todd has the professorial air of a woman who graduated with a PhD in education but is down-to-earth at the same time. She was a pioneer in the field of dyslexia and did groundbreaking work to ease the lives of individuals with the condition and their families. 

When she was studying at UCLA, dyslexia was not a recognized condition. The state of California and several school superintendents said there was no such thing, but Todd knew otherwise. 

“I went to various sources to get information because I saw, in my practical experience, it was a terrible problem for a lot of people,” she said. "I wrote a 400-page thesis, and my mentors said they wouldn’t even consider it because it was something they didn’t believe in.” 

While at UCLA, Todd studied the Fernald Method of teaching reading to students who were unable to learn by traditional methods. It was developed by Grace Fernald at UCLA in the 1920s and 30s. 

“But [dyslexia] was not recognized, so how was anyone going to learn anything about it without experience?” Todd said. “They said it didn’t exist in the schools. They called it learning disabilities and it is a learning disability, or it is an ability.” 

She said Einstein, Edison and “ordinary people” are dyslexic. 

“I went to those IEPs (Individualized Education Programs) and wrote case studies for each of the children I was representing, and it was difficult” she said. “I would write three-page reports on what I saw in dyslexic children.” 

Todd wrote a book with her daughter, Marty Elwell, about children who learn differently, and the information within it provided a great relief to parents across the country.  

“Parents were just so happy,” she said as she recalled meeting with parents of dyslexic children. “I got a letter from a mother, and she thanked me so much because no one else was understanding the situation.” 

Todd also had an article published, despite the head of the reading department at Claremont Graduate University saying there was no such thing as dyslexia. 

At Claremont, Todd earned her PhD and worked with Dr. Hans Jordan who was on sabbatical from the University of Norway in Bergen. 

“He shared his expertise with me,” she said. “And we became friends.” 

After a young man in tears approached Todd and said, “I can’t read and the teachers don’t believe me,” she was moved to act. 

Although she had earned her degree, she needed to earn her master's degree to be designated as a reading teacher. Her three children were grown and leaving the house, so she went back to school, this time to the University of La Verne and established her own reading school. 

"I opened up the school in my attic, the Attic Reading Center,” Todd said. 

She taught for 20 years. 

TODD WILL celebrate her 99th birthday in September. She was born in Idaho, the only child in a farming family. Todd’s mother earned a degree in economics from UCLA-Berkely. 

“She was probably the only girl,” Todd said with a shake of her head. 

Her husband, Richard Koenig Todd, was a mortician, yet was known as the Will Rogers of Pomona for his great sense of humor. 

Todd has been living in Whitefish full time for 9 years but enjoyed summers at her family’s property in the Flathead since the 1960s. The acreage in Marion had no phone or radio. Todd said they lived like pioneers with an old washer, a clothesline and pack rats. 

“It was fun,” she said. “I made a fishing friend. She taught me to fish, and we’d catch trout using worms or fish eyes or whatever we could find.” 

Todd recalled a story that involved a recent misunderstanding with her manicurist. Todd thought the woman had called her a worrier. 

"I am a worrier. I worry about everything,” she said. “When I was just a tiny girl, I would worry about people starving, and my mother would say, ‘When you're older, you can do something about it.’” 

She said that comment influenced her life greatly. 

“But what my manicurist was calling me, was a warrior,” she said with a laugh.