“The General” has crossed the finish line for the final time. Peter J. Todd, longtime cross country and track and field coach at the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT), passed away peacefully in his sleep on November 2, 2024 at the age of 87. He left those he guided to continue the friendships that his hands forged.
Born Peter Jerome Kozemka on October 3, 1937 in Homewood, Pennsylvania on Pittsburgh’s east side, Pete was the third child of Peter (“Pitt”) and Regina Kozemka.
He would never know his father, however, as the elder Kozemka died tragically in a steel mill accident three months after his birth. Eventually, Pete’s mother remarried and he was given his stepfather’s surname, as were his older siblings, Stephen and Donna (both deceased). Pete is survived by his sister Judy Wise and husband Mike. .
Pete moved to Rochester in the summer of 1953 when he was 15. He was soon enrolled at Monroe High School, where he quickly excelled as a member of the cross country and track teams. Still a schoolboy in 1955, Pete unofficially founded the Rochester Track Club (RTC), which officially came into being on July 1, 1958. He graduated from Monroe in 1956 and enrolled the following fall at the State University of New York at Cortland.
While successfully competing in cross country and track at Cortland, Pete ran the RTC during the summers. Beginning in 1959, he organized Tuesday night track meets at Brighton High School, the remnants of which are still contested during the summer at Penfield High School. After graduating from Cortland in 1961, Pete took a job working at the Catholic Youth Organization (CYO). In 1964, he founded and directed the Rochester Marathon. Pete would continue his role in guiding the RTC until he stepped down in 1976, after leading the club to 17 national Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) titles. In the process, he also brought numerous Olympians to Rochester to race at his events, including the likes of Ira Murchison, Dave Wottle, Dick Buerkle, and Marty Liquori. Pete was inducted into the Greater Rochester Track Club Hall of Fame in 1982.
Pete was hired by RIT in 1965 as the school’s cross country and track and field coach. He would go on to compile a 150-8 dual meet record in 31 years at the helm of the track and field team. Between 1980 and 1996, Pete’s cross country teams would compete in the NCAA Division III Championships in 14 out of 17 years, including his final nine years where his squad never finished lower than 13th and placed as high as third in 1985. In all, he produced 48 All-Americans, including Lynn Fuller in the javelin, the first All- American in RIT Athletics history. Mark Stebbins was RIT’s first national champion in the 400-meter intermediate hurdles (1976). Pete was inducted in the RIT Hall of Fame in 2014.
Among the other highlights of Pete’s illustrious career was organizing a torch relay to honor the opening of RIT’s Henrietta campus in the fall of 1968. Pete was part of an eight-man team that ran from Washington, D.C. to RIT, covering the 660 miles in 94 hours. He thought even bigger in 1979, coordinating a coast-to-coast relay to celebrate RIT’s 150th anniversary. Along with eight current and three former cross country runners, Pete gained national prominence for the school. His Rochester area team finished this unbelievable continental killer in 14 days, four hours, and eight minutes, breaking the world record in the process.
A self-described maverick, Pete Todd was one of a kind. A boastful visionary with boundless energy, he always did it his way. And for that, those of us who knew and loved him are eternally grateful.
RF Pete!!