Dorchester Grad, WWII Aircraft Specialist Leonard E. Leach Passes At 99

Leonard Eugene Leach died at the age of 99 in Loveland, Colo. on Oct. 2, 2019. Leonard was born May 28, 1920 to Daniel Webster Leach Jr. and Bessie Mae (Knosp) Leach on the family farm north of Dorchester. The youngest of four children, Leonard grew up in the Dorchester area and attended Dorchester Public Schools, from which he graduated in 1937. After High School he worked on the family farm, attended classes at UNL focusing on agriculture, and learned the aircraft sheet metal trade. In late 1940, he took a job working for Curtis Wright Aircraft Company in Buffalo, NY, where he helped build the P-40 Warhawk. He then worked for Cessna Aircraft Company in Wichita, Kansas building twin engine trainers, the Waco CG-4A glider used in Europe, and the B-29 bomber (Cessna-Boeing).

He married Virginia Lorene Rardin of Dorchester on Feb. 14, 1941. They immediately moved to Wichita where he worked for Cessna. In 1944 he enlisted in the U.S. Army and was assigned to the Army Air Corp after basic training because of his aircraft construction experience. Basic training was at Buckley Field and the Lowry field in Denver, followed by Lincoln. After basic training, he was stationed at Ardmore, Okla., which was an Army pilot training facility. As he succinctly put it, he helped repair the training aircraft whose landings were less than stellar. Overnight they would get the planes ready for the next day’s round of training with most of them were B-17’s. After Ardmore, he was stationed at McCook, and finally to Salt Lake City, Utah, where he was attached to the medical corp. 

In 2010, Leonard was able to go to Washington D.C. on the Northern Colorado Honor flight. He met veterans there who flew P-40’s in China, one who was a medic on the 15 passenger troop gliders that he helped to build and others who just shared a common history. It was a re-connection with his generation

After his discharge in 1946, Leonard farmed in western and then southeastern Nebraska, eventually settling down in the area where he grew up. In addition to farming family owned land, he purchased an adjacent parcel and leased others. He primarily raised seed corn, as well as wheat and alfalfa. He was one of the first to drill irrigation wells in the area and was proud of being a top producer in Saline County for a number of years. Due to health concerns he relocated to Longmont, Colorado in 1962, where he and Virginia owned a retail store until the early 1980’s. While they owned the store, Virginia discovered her talents in oil painting and loved to share her work with family and customers. In 1980 Virginia was diagnosed with cancer and succumbed to the disease in July of 1985. They were married for 44 years at the time of her death and shared many special times together.

On Sept. 20, 1986, Leonard married Wilma Allen of Westminster, Colo. At the time of his death they had been married for 33 years.