Rick Todd Founded in Greenville in 1932, the South Carolina Motor Carriers Association was incorporated in 1933, when it changed its name to the Motor Transportation Association of S.C., Inc. Since then, the S. C. Trucking Association. has grown to more than 700 trucking companies with more than 100,000 trucks on the roads across the country.

J. Richards Todd has been president of the S.C.T.A. since 1988.

Rick Todd was born in Columbia's Providence Hospital about the time his father finished law school at USC. His father retired as assistant director of the Legislative Council.

Todd has an older sister, Polly Laffitte, who is an art curator for the University of Tennessee in Knoxville where her husband runs the student affairs office.

His younger sister Ruth Todd is a Clemson architecture graduate. She is an assistant principal for a San Francisco architecture firm, Page & Turnbull.

Todd's younger brother Steve is in construction full time, but he also takes guitar gigs on the side.

Todd attended Miss Lola's Kindergarten near Triangle City in West Columbia. After Saluda River Elementary and Northside Middle School (the former Lakeview High School), Todd graduated from Brookland- Cayce High School.

At B- C, Todd played basketball and founded the golf team. He appealed to Bob Montgomery, the school's athletic director, who then appointed the track coach to take on the responsibilities of the golf team. Todd worked on his golf game in the summers while he also worked as a lifeguard at the Country Club of Lexington.

Also in his off- time during his secondary school years, Todd mowed lawns, cleaned buildings, sold Cokes at Williams- Brice and worked at Reynold's Florist Shop on Meeting Street.

In college at USC, Todd graduated in four years with his degree in journalism. In evenings and on weekends he worked as a bell hop at the Holiday Inn on Assembly, what is now the Courtyard by Marriott. Even though he met his commitments at the Holiday Inn while he took 18 credit hours in college courses per semester, Todd also managed a job as a page in the S.C. Legislature.

Todd later met his wife Susan at the State House when she was a page. Susan is a third- grade teacher at Hammond School. They have a daughter, Mary Holland, who will be five in two months.

While Todd was considering career options, to include law school, he heard from Sam Boylston, the general manager of what is now the S.C. Trucking Ass'n. Boylston offered Todd the position of assistant general manager, which he accepted in 1979. Less than 10 years later, Boylston retired, and Todd took over.

In 1980, under President Ronald Reagan, trucking was deregulated at the federal level, and in the early '90s, S.C. effectuated intrastate deregulation.

As the president of the S.C.T.A., Todd is the CEO and chief lobbyist. He oversees a half- dozen people at their headquarters on Devine Street, across from Dianne's.

One of the major milestones of Todd's term at the S.C.T.A. is the explosion in the use of containerized shipping, which essentially made the Wando/Welch terminal at the Port of Charleston.

The S.C. Port Authority is looking for a new CEO while it entertains discussions on the future of the Port of Charleston, the feasibility of a new port on the Jasper County side of the Savannah River (a joint venture with the port authority of Ga.), the port possibilities for Daniel Island, and the profound East Coast impact of an enlarged Panama Canal for both trucking and rail, discussed together especially when considering containerized shipping.

In the local discussions about the Port of Charleston is its future as a public or private facility. As a public facility it continues with its common- user gates in competition with Southeast ports in Jacksonville, Fla., Savannah, Ga., Wilmington, N.C. and Norfolk- Hampton Roads, Va.

As a private facility, the threat of more unionization and more operations costs is feared by many S.C.P.A. regulars such as former S.C. Sec. of Commerce Bob Royall, who is campaigning for a more competitive port.

And there's always the voice of the South of Broad wannabes who prefer to de- industrialize Charleston, downplaying the importance of the port and leaving the jobs offerings dominated by waiting tables, tending bar and changing sheets.

Real wealth, however, is created by trade, and trade makes its final destination on trucks.