Todd was born June 13, 1958, at Riverview Medical Center in Red Bank, New Jersey. He is the son of Edoma and Jeanette Ranson, and he is the youngest of his sisters Joan and Carol and his brother Ed. His mother was born in St. Alban Vermont in 1923. Early in life, she developed her natural talents in visual arts, particularly in drawing, water colors and oil painting. She worked as a secretary for the US Department of Labor. There, she met her future husband Ed a larger-than-life Texan, born in 1897. Todd really enjoys the fact that his pops was born in the 1800’s. His father was a business man in New York City and their family settled in Red Bank, New Jersey, where Todd grew up.
Early, Todd had an interest in trains he said he had his first model train, at the age of two. He continues to have a love for them, he goes to model train shows, and buys model railroad supplies from hobby shops any chance he gets. Even for his 60th birthday, he wants to go to Baltimore and go to the B&O Railroad Museum. He has a lot of fond memories taking the train with his siblings from Red Bank to New York City. His other love is music. He said, when he was young he liked listening to country 
western and later rock ‘n roll. He enjoyed watching The Ed Sullivan show on channel 2 on Sundays with his Mom. He watched The Beatles perform on there in 1965. He said he preferred watching them at Shea Stadium in 1966, as it was a full concert. Todd has a pretty extensive record collection. He started his record collection, when he was a teenager, and his sisters and brother gave him their record collection, when they moved out. He has well over 600 records.
Todd loved growing up in the 70’s. He liked to ride his Schwinn racing bike through his neighborhood and pal around with his friends. He would hang with one friend and they would like to watch freight and passenger trains go by them. Also, he really enjoyed visiting his family in Vermont, and he remembers visiting his family in Texas, when he was 8 years old. He doesn’t really remember his pops’ side of the family he really just remembers the LaBounty side, his mother’s side of the family. Even, when his family moved out of state he really enjoys going to the visit with them, when he can. His mother tried to keep him busy growing up, and he really liked when she would send him to sleep away camp in New York.
Todd graduated from Red Bank Regional High School in 1978, at the age of 20. After high school, he attended the Monmouth County Vocational Rehabilitation Center in Neptune, New Jersey. He continues to go to MCVR, now CVR in Eatontown. He does piece work there on an assembly line putting together beauty make-up kits and puts together first aid kits. He has held jobs working at Home Depot working as maintenance man, and he work at Stop ‘n Shop as a bagger. He really prefers working in the work shop at CVR since he has been there for so long.
During the 80’s and 90’s, Todd was a competitor in the Special Olympics, competing in bowling, track and field, basketball and swimming, until he had to retire out. He really enjoyed swimming. Todd proudly remembers taking swim lesions, when he was just four years old. He says that really helped him become a really good swimmer and he would always place in the top 3 in the Special Olympics. He wishes that he could still compete in swimming, but he says that he is too old and now retired from it. He says, that he is not too old not miss it though. He is an excellent athlete in the other sports he competed in he continues to go bowling with the Keansburg Kegglars with his roommates on Thursday’s from September to May.
In 1980, Todd moved into the Claire Miller Group home in Farmingdale, New Jersey. He said that it was a really hard transition living with 12 other people and having to share his bedroom. He felt like he was pulled into many directions and things were always changing there, and he couldn’t get use to that. The group home described him as being nonverbal, distant and unsocial. He lived at the group home for 17 years. He moved into Special Friends, Inc. December 17, 1997, which later became the Center for Family Support. At the Supervised Apartment Todd likes to joke around with his favorite staff and roommates. He likes that he is oldest in the house, and he likes that he has been living with his roommate Michael Brown since they moved in together around the same time in 1997.
Todd has come a long way living at the Supervised Apartment, and he says that he doesn’t want to leave anytime soon, and besides it costs too much money to live out on your own. Also, he looks at his staff and roommates as his extended family. He enjoys life to the fullest being a rollercoaster enthusiast, a traveler, traveling to California, Pennsylvania, Minnesota, Vermont and Massachusetts just to name a few place he has traveled to. Todd is really looking forward to traveling independently this year to visit his family for his 60th birthday, as he has done multiple times before. He has an amazing outlook on life, and not a lot gets him down. When he had thyroid cancer in 2014, he took it on bravely, strong, fearless and he was always upbeat with everything going on. Today, he is cancer free for past 3 years. He is very caring and close with his family and his friends. At the Supervised Apartment he is the jokester of the home with pranks and his nicknames for his peers. 60 years old has never looked better on anyone!
The Happiest 60th Birthday Todd!!!
