Col. Townshend served in the Army from 1941 until 1972 and participated in World War II and the Korean and Vietnam Wars. The Philadelphia native received six medals, including an Army Corps of Engineers Commendation in 1960 and the Legion of Merit with oak-leaf cluster in 1971. The oak-leaf cluster was for his work on the United States-Japan Joint Staff Council, during which Col. Townshend participated in negotiations for the reversion of Okinawa to Japan. He also received the Third Order of the Sacred Treasure from the Emperor of Japan in 1971.

He was awarded the Bronze Star in 1950 for his work in ground operations in Korea.

After retiring from the military, Col. Townshend worked as deputy director of the state Division of Building and Construction until 1987. He later served as a design consultant for the Pennsylvania Convention Center, work he continued until 1990.

Col. Townshend was a 1940 graduate of Pennsylvania State University and earned an MBA from the Drexel Institute of Technology in 1959. He met his wife, Kimiko, in Japan in 1946. They married in 1953.

He is survived by a son, Ken; a daughter, Linda; two grandchildren, and four brothers.

Col. Townshend will be interred with full military honors next month at Arlington National Cemetery, where his late wife's cremains will also be interred.