Peden B. McLeod was born September 3, 1940, in Walterboro, SC to parents Rhoda L. Brown McLeod and Walton J. McLeod, Jr. He received his B.A. from Wofford College in 1962, where he was president of his junior class and senior class. In 1967, he received his J.D. from the University of South Carolina School of Law, where he was a board member of the South Carolina Law Review, member of the Wig & Robe Society and served as president of Phi Delta Phi.
He served on active duty in the U.S. Army from 1962 until 1964, where he was stationed at Fort Holabird, MD and Fort Bragg, NC. He was a Captain in the U.S. Army Reserve from 1962 until 1972.
Following law school in 1967, he served two years as a law clerk for the U.S. District Judge Charles E. Simmons, Jr. in Charleston; then later went on to private practice with Jefferies McLeod Unger & Fraser n/k/a McLeod Fraser & Cone, LLC.
Peden served as a Walterboro City Council member from 1970 until 1972. He was elected as a state representative in the South Carolina House of Representatives in 1972, where he became a member of the Ways and Means Committee, Assistant Majority Leader and chair of the Joint Appropriations Review Committee.
On December 4, 1979, he was sworn in as a member of the South Carolina Senate representing Colleton, Beaufort, Jasper, Hampton and Allendale Counties. While in the Senate, he became a member of the Finance Committee, chair of the Senate Medical Affairs Committee, while also serving as a member of the board of trustees of the Medical University of SC.
He was a member of the SC Bar, U.S. Fourth Judicial Circuit Conference (permanent member) and the SC Judicial Invitational. In 1998, he received the Order of the Palmetto from Governor David Beasley.
He was elected as Code Commissioner and Director of the South Carolina Legislature Council and resigned from the Senate on October 1, 1990. As Code Commissioner, he represented SC as a Commissioner of the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws and served as Secretary of the SC Judicial Council. After retiring as Code Commissioner in 1998, he returned to practice law full time in Walterboro.
He was a member of Bethel United Methodist Church, Commander of the American Legion Post #93 and district chair of the Boy Scouts of America. He was a member of the Lions Club, Elks Moose Lodge, Masons and Shriners, and Jaycees, where he was the recipient of its Distinguished Service Award in 1972.
Peden B. McLeod died on December 30, 2021. He was predeceased by his wife, Mary Waite Hamrick McLeod. He is survived by his children, Mary Carlisle M. Benson, Peden Brown McLeod, Jr., Rhoda Lane M. Perry, and John Reaves McLeod; and ten grandchildren.