Tod apparently came to James Mote's attention via the Nashotah House old-boy network. Mote (who passed away in 2006) was, according to my informant, an enthusiastic Nashotah House alumnus, and this was a blind spot for him. Nashotah House alumni, my informant points out, have a very high opinion of themselves and each other, although as an attorney, he has no dog in this fight. They refer to it, he says, as "The House" among themselves.
Now that he mentions it, yes, I've noticed that in the "continuum", alums of The House are as quick to mention this about themselves as, say, alums of Yale Law, although my informant points out that The House has been busily turning out lady rectors and openly gay deacons with the best of them -- it's an Episcopal seminary, after all; what's so good about it? In any case, he says that apparently Tod came to Mote's attention as a worthy product of The House, then at something of a loose end, and Mote snapped him up without much further question.
The ACC synod that elected him Bishop of the Missouri Valley in 1980 or 1981 did quiz him about the obvious question -- gee, how come you left The Episcopal Church back in, er, 1966 was it? My informant relates at second hand that Tod was not immediately forthcoming about the reasons but did finally stammer out an explanation that satisfied the synod. Since Tod was Mote's candidate and the only credible alternative, they voted him in.
My informant also says that General Growth Management Company in Des Moines, of which Falk was president from 1976 to 1981, was a Falk family enterprise, although I don't have independent confirmation of this. This was one possibility that I had always considered, since the Falk family was involved in the founding of Pabst Brewing as well as a large manufacturing company in Milwaukee called the Falk Company, so it appears that there may have been other family enterprises sufficiently removed from Wisconsin to occupy Tod once the scandal in Rhinelander died down.
Many thanks to those who have continued to provide information.
