James Gilbert Todd, painter, printmaker, illustrator, and educator, was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on October 12, 1937. Todd attended the College of Great Falls, Montana from 1956 to 1959, and then continued his studies at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and the University of Chicago. He then served in the U.S. Army and, while stationed in Germany in 1961, he met Julia Brozio, with whom he would travel to the States to marry in 1963 before returning once more to Germany to teach art and English from 1965 to 1968.

Todd received his MFA in painting and printmaking in 1970 from the University of Montana, and served as Director of the Humanities Program there from for three years. This was followed by a position as a Professor of Art - including as Chairman of the Art Department for eight years and head of the printmaking program for twelve - until 2000, when he retired. He and Julia then settled in Missoula, Montana in the Northwest Rocky Mountains.

In addition to his personal output and his teaching career, Todd was known for designing a liberal arts program at the Montana State Penitentiary, and for campaining for a Native American Studies program at the university and in public schools. 

Todd was a member of the Association Jean Chieze in France, the Wood Engravers Network in the United States, the Society of Wood Engravers and the Royal Society of Painter-Printmakers in the United Kingdom. He illustrated the books, A Radiant Map of the World by Rick Newby, Still Another Day by Pablo Neruda, and Woman Who Lives in the Earth by Swain Wolfe. His work is in the collections of the Montana Museum of Art and Culture; the Montana Historical Society; the Jiangsu Provincial Fine Arts Museum in China; the Honolulu Academy of Fine Arts; the Oaxaca Museum in Mexico; the Regensburg Museum, Germany; and the Ashmolean Museum in England.

James Gilbert Todd, Jr. died in Missoula on April 27, 2025.