Leonard, Richard
Person · USA
Original archive entry. The text, images and links below are kept as they were written.
American engineer. Tooling and plant facilities engineer for the Atlas.
Leonard grew up in Chicago, Phoenix, and San Diego. After World War II service with the US Army in Europe, he went to college, receiving a degree in electrical engineering in 1949. After two years in the oil exploration industry, he joined Convair San Diego in 1951 in the tooling department. He worked on the Atlas program throughout his career, eventually becoming Manager of Plant Services. Leonard retired in 1991.
Biography
Obituary:
RICHARD D. LEONARD, 87, RETIRED GENERAL DYNAMICS OFFICIAL Richard D. "Dick" Leonard was born in Chicago in 1925 and spent much of his early youth in Phoenix, Arizona, where he attended Phoenix Union High School. He later moved to San Diego to become part of the first graduating class of Kearny High School in 1942. His education at San Diego State College was interrupted in 1943 by Infantry Service in the European Theater where he earned four battle stars and citations including the Purple Heart and Bronze Star. He returned to San Diego where he received an engineering degree in 1949. He spent three years in oil exploration and the next forty years in management of construction and maintenance at General Dynamics (formerly Convair). Most of the Kearny Mesa plant, much of the Lindbergh Field plant and several Atlas missile test facilities were built or remodeled under his management. Mr. Leonard was preceded in death by his first wife, Norma Ray Leonard (who passed away in 1992) and his second wife Barbara Hinman Leonard who died earlier this year. He is survived by his daughter, Linda Ceylor, two grandchildren, and one great-grandchild of Wisconsin; a brother Larry and sister Judi (in Georgia) and their respective families; and Barbara's daughter Vicki Hinman Warnock.