Donald Townsend
A community organization dedicated to helping people with developmental disabilities has donated more than $75,000 to ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø to continue its legacy and to honor one of its long-time members, the late Donald B. Townsend of Indiana County.
The local chapter of the United Commercial Travelers Council 598, which dissolved in 2023, made the donation to establish the United Commercial Travelers Council 598-Donald B. Townsend Memorial Scholarship.
This scholarship will be available starting in the 2025–26 academic year to qualified full-time students at IUP in their junior or senior years who are pursuing a major, minor, or certificate in special education or early childhood/special education. Preference will be given to students who graduated from a high school in Indiana County.
The United Commercial Travelers was formed on January 16, 1888, by six men in a meeting at the Neil House in Columbus, Ohio, to provide a society for traveling salesmen and commercial travelers. Like many other fraternal aid societies founded in those years, its original objective was to support its members and dependents financially in case of disability or accidental death. It also functioned as a secret society modeled after the Masons to uphold community values. With the development of the transcontinental railroad, salesmen were able to venture into Canada and a council was established there in 1889. Locally, Indiana Council 598 attracted a strong membership for many years.
“Longtime members recalled more than 300 men in white shirts and ties being present for the meetings some months,” Sonya Stewart, UCT Indiana Council secretary said. “The women formed a Ladies Auxiliary that was also well attended until the two groups merged in the 1990s.
The UCT’s number one community service priority for more than 60 years was helping people with developmental disabilities.
The organization believed that there is no greater service to the community than providing education and opportunities to one of the most vulnerable segments of the population,” Stewart said. “So, as one of its final acts, the members, led by Don Townsend at the last meeting he was able to attend, voted to establish this scholarship to continue to fulfill the organization’s mission by giving financial support to students and student teachers who have made a commitment to a career in special education.” Stewart, of Indiana County, worked with IUP to establish the scholarship on behalf of the UCT. She earned master’s degrees from IUP in 1991 and 1996.
Townsend was a member of the organization for more than 50 years and consistently served in officer positions. At the state level, he served on the executive board until the group merged with the Ohio board.
“Don was the organization’s heartbeat,” Stewart said. “His guiding hand was crucial to new members as they worked their way up the leadership ladder, and he served faithfully as a trustee until the time of his death. We remember Don for his sense of humor and his service and commitment to fraternalism. He truly embodied the legacy of those original six men who met over 130 years ago concerned about the welfare of widows and orphans,” she said.
Townsend, a lifelong resident of South Bend, passed away in August 2022 at age 78. He had a long career at National Roll Steel Foundry in Avonmore and was a co-owner of GPS Security Inc.
For several years he was a ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø State Constable and was a member of the Dayton Fair Board. He was a 50-year member of the Masonic Freemasonry Apollo Lodge 437 and was a 32-degree Freemason. During his years of service, he held multiple roles as an active member.
He earned a 50-year pin of service for the Coudersport Scottish Rite and was a Syria Temple Shriner and Baker Trail Forest #180 lodge member. He was a deacon at St Jacob’s United Church of Christ in South Bend, a lifetime member of the NRA, a member of Whitetails Unlimited, Red Barn Sportsman Club, and was a lifelong blood donor to the American Red Cross. He was a 1962 graduate of Elderton High School.