Townsend grew up in St. Augustine attending Gamble Rogers Middle School and graduating from St. Augustine High School in 2005. He attended West Virginia University and was a member of the wrestling team. Townsend married his high school sweetheart in 2007 and since then they have called St. Augustine home.

Townsend and his wife Rhyan have 3 sons and have started 3 businesses in St. Augustine: a coffee distribution company, a vending and micro market company, and a contracting company. After being acquired by a Fortune 500 company in 2019 Townsend and his family retired and decided to travel the country for a year in an RV. True to his entrepreneurial spirit Townsend started a brand called 100% DAD that provides wisdom and encouragement for fathers and simultaneously toured and promoted the 100% DAD brand while seeing the country with his family. Loving the adventure the family continued traveling and ended up traveling for 3 straight years, traveling over 75,000 miles and parked their RV in over 180 different locations. Check out more on the 100dad.com website.

Townsend's family has a 100 years old 200 acre family farm in beautiful SouthEast West Virginia that he loves to visit. Townsend loves being outdoors hiking, camping, fishing, and hunting. Townsend has stayed active in the real estate world by providing hard money loans for Real Estate Investors and has been continuously in the hunt for commercial properties and developments since retiring.

Townsend has extensive experience as a business operator and negotiator. The Russell family have been active members of Trinity Parish since 2008 and have been involved in various community organizations including the Boys & Girls Club, Young Professionals of St. Augustine, and the Junior Service League.