Leonard was born March 28, 1923, in Youngstown, Ohio. He graduated from Boardman High School in 1943.

Leonard flew 22 missions during WWII, serving as Right Gunner on Replacement Crew 9.

He married his wife Alice and together they had 2 sons and grandchildren.

Leonard was discharged 10 January 1946. He graduated from college amd lived in Columbus Ohio for another eight years. He workd int he Columbus area as an accountant for five years as a Senior Accountant for North American Aviation Corp. Ta this time he had the opportunity to enter the field as a technical writer because of his experience with the aircraft in WWII and working for his pilot rating.

Len reported that during his 30 years or so in the work place he worked for aerospace companies such as General Dynamic/Astronautics Div. (Atlas ICBM) program in San Diego, CA. and N.A.A. Space Div (Apollo) program Downey, CA. At GD/A he changed back to accounting for the Tech Writing Dept and as a Group Leader he prepared cost status reports monthly for the GD/A Budget Dept. and the Air Force Contracts Office on site for all three launching modes (gantry, coffin and silo) configurations. He later worked for General Electric Large Jet Engine Div. in Cincinnati, Ohio. Len later retired in 1988 from Rockwell International N.A.A. Div. as Senior Technical Writer on the B-1B program in Columbus, Ohio where he had started his tech writing career in 1955.

During Len's tenure in the work place he retunred to night school and earned an Associate Degree in Industrial Engineering and followed that profession for seven or so years. In addition, during this time span he also earned his Commerical Pilots Certificate and earned the privilege to fly single and multi-engine aircraft. He added that in the three disciplines he worked he achieved Senior status - the Good Lord was helping all the way!