Martha "Marty" Tod

Martha “Marty“ Jo Tod, MD, age 81 of Gainesville, FL, lost her battle with metastatic breast cancer on Thursday, November 13. Dr. Tod was born November 30, 1943, in Freeport, TX, to Joseph “Joe” Lee Tod and Fannie Laura Powell Tod. Her childhood was spent in Freeport and Lake Jackson, TX.

Marty graduated as valedictorian from Brazosport High School, Freeport, TX, in 1962. She attended Rice University in Houston, TX, and received a degree in chemistry in 1966. She pursued her medical education at UT Southwestern Medical School in Dallas, TX, earning her medical degree in 1970. After a year as an intern in Little Rock, AR, she returned to the UT Southwestern Medical Center for a residency program in anesthesiology. In July 1974, she moved to Gainesville, FL, where she joined an anesthesiology practice serving North Florida Regional Hospital, and spent her medical career there.

After her retirement in 1998, Marty pursued her many and varied hobbies, but most of them involved traveling the world. She was an avid outdoor enthusiast, and could be found skiing in the winter and hiking and climbing mountains in the summer in Grand County, CO, where she had a second home. She also enjoyed the water and loved waterskiing, sailing, canoeing, kayaking, and whitewater rafting. Marty was a cyclist both in FL and in CO, and traveled in Europe with biking friends many times. And most of these outdoor activities were documented in her photographs and slideshows. Her indoor hobbies included playing her concert grand pianos and performing in ballroom dancing competitions. Closer to home, she loved gardening and had vegetable and flower gardens in both CO and FL.

Marty was preceded in death by her parents, her brother Robert “Bobby” Powell Tod, and her brother-in-law Harold Everett Skiles, and is survived by her long-time partner Terry Warren Ready; her sisters Mary Lee Tod (Calvin Timmerman) and Sarah Lynn Tod Skiles; her sister-in-law Theresa Andreas Tod; her nephews Robert Gabriel Tod (Victoria), Joshua “Josh” Alton Tod (Valerie), Joseph Everett Skiles (Cassie), and Duncan Conrad Skiles; and four great-nephews and a great-niece.

A celebration of Marty’s extraordinary life is being planned at a later date, with burial at Prairie Creek Conservation Cemetery, near Micanopy, FL. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to Sierra Club, American Cancer Society, Prairie Creek Conservation Cemetery, or another charity of your choice. Arrangements are in the care of Milam Funeral Home.