Todd N. Sawyer

Todd N. Sawyer, 54, of Robinson, IL, passed away unexpectedly and was found at his home on June 16, 2026. He was born on January 4, 1972, in Mount Carmel, IL. Todd's family moved around some in his early years, living in several communities before settling in Allendale and later Robinson, but it didn't much matter where they landed; he always found the water. As a boy, he and his siblings spent their days exploring around the family cabin and along Raccoon Creek, hunting for arrowheads, picking mushrooms, and dragging home pawpaws that their mother wasn't exactly thrilled to find stinking up the refrigerator. He was a country kid from the start, happiest with his feet in the dirt and curious about whatever was waiting around the next bend. As Todd grew older, the creeks and woods of southeastern Illinois became his classroom. He learned to hunt, trap, fish, forage, and tend to animals. He had a green thumb, too, and the people who knew him best swore he could take a weed and grow flowers out of it.

After graduating from Robinson High School in 1991, Todd went to work at Roadmaster until it closed. He worked at PSI power plants after that, then at the Indian Refinery in Lawrenceville, before eventually returning to the land. He and his mother owned 42 acres, and Todd farmed their ground and helped work neighboring fields as well. When his farming days wound down, he made his living the way he did most things: by finding value where other people didn't bother to look. Known to family and friends as a scrapper extraordinaire, Todd spent his days at auctions, hunting for overlooked treasure in other people's castoffs. It wasn't so different from searching for arrowheads along Raccoon Creek. He just never lost the instinct.

No matter what he was doing for work, though, the water always pulled him back. Todd kept a camp along the Wabash River and knew its banks and bends by heart. He net fished, foraged for mussels, and bathed under a waterfall upriver where the water carved a natural tub into the rocks, cold as it was. But line fishing was his real love. He owned newer poles and never touched them, preferring the old "junk" rods he'd had for years, and he never went anywhere without a tackle box that must've weighed twenty pounds. Fishing gave Todd the thing he valued most. Peace and quiet, on his own terms.

After all, Todd was a private man. Crowds made him tense, and if he needed something from Walmart, he was in the door at six in the morning and out before 6:30, long before the rest of the world showed up. He kept only a few close friends, but the ones he had mattered to him. Those friendships were built slowly, over years of fishing trips and days spent scrapping together, and Todd held onto them.

For all his solitude, though, he had a soft spot a mile wide when it came to children. He loved his great-nephews Levi, Titas, and William, and he rarely came around without sodas, chips, and candy tucked under his arm (whether their mom approved or not). He'd come over to Susan's to help cut wood and get ready for winter, and he'd take the boys on adventures they will never forget. One frog-gigging trip kept them all out until two in the morning, and Todd never once thought about the clock. If there was something worth doing and kids to do it with, the hour didn't matter.

Todd lived simply, and he lived honestly. He didn't need much and never pretended to want more. The same boy who wandered the banks of Raccoon Creek never really disappeared. He just traded one fishing hole for another and kept following the water wherever it led. 

He is survived by his sister, Angela (Jeff) Yardley; his niece, Susan Seals (David Berberich); his nephews, Travis Seals and Jeffrey Seals; his great-nephews, Levi, Titas, and William; his aunt Peggy Naney, her daughter, Kristina, and Kristina's son, Drayden; and his cousins, Stacy DeHosse and Sharon Osmon. He was preceded in death by his father, Earl Sawyer; his mother, Deanna Baker; his step-father, Donald Baker; his sister, Jamie Sawyer; and his niece, Amber Seals.

It was Todd's wish to be cremated without public services. Goodwine Funeral Home in Robinson is assisting the family with arrangements. Memorials may be made to his memorial fund with checks made to "Goodwine Funeral Homes." Donations may also be made online by following this link.