Guest speaker for the Thursday, March 10 meeting of the Minden Lions Club will be Ted Brode. His topic will be “Louisiana’s role in our victory in the American Revolution.”
Brode was born and raised in Monroe and is a 1964 graduate of Neville High school. He graduated from Northeast Louisiana State College in 1969 with a bachelor’s degree in education. During college, he had signed on with the Army ROTC, so immediately upon graduation he became a second lieutenant in the infantry. While at Fort Benning, Ga., Brode applied for and was accepted into Rotor Wing School. He was trained as a helicopter pilot at Fort Wolters, Texas, and Fort Rucker, Ala.
Brode served three years in the military, including a tour in Vietnam as a gunship pilot flying the UH1-C. When the “Charlie Models” were retired, he flew the “Nighthawk” (an armed UH1-H) at Plieku. Most of Brode’s flight hours were night-combat missions.
Following military service, Brode returned to Louisiana and began teaching at Riser Jr. High School in West Monroe. Soon after, he married Phyllis Thompson, with whom he had four children. He is
now grandfather to five grandchildren. Brode earned a master’s degree plus 30 in education and taught all the various histories covered in the middle schools over the 37 years of his employment at that one school before retiring in 2008. After retirement, he taught at the private Geneva Academy in Monroe. He served over 20 years a deacon at Oak Grove Baptist Church and then at Auburn Avenue Presbyterian Church as a deacon and elder.
Brode joined the Sons of Confederate Veterans in 1987 and has served in many capacities over the years, including camp treasurer, camp lieutenant commander, camp commander (15 years), brigade commander, division first lieutenant commander, and division commander. In 2010, he joined the Sons of the American Revolution, later serving as chapter treasurer and now chapter president. Brode is also the state society commander of the Louisiana Society Color Guard.
For most of his 67 plus years, Brode has been keenly interested in history – pretty much a life’s work.
The Minden Lions Club meets Thursdays at noon at the American Legion Memorial Home, located at 119 Pine St. in Minden.
