Charles "Brad" Leonard

Just Cremation

Charles Bradford Leonard (Brad), 88, of Missoula, passed away on Wednesday, April 19 at home in Missoula, of complications of Parkinson’s disease. He was born May 14, 1934 in Providence, Rhode Island to Charles and Dolores (Kells) Leonard.  As a young boy he lived with his parents in Little Compton, Rhode Island, then a small rural farming and fishing town.  He attended schools in Little Compton, then moved with his family to Cranston, Rhode Island. He was a very active young boy, exploring the woods and reservoirs.  He was a stamp collector by 7, a lifelong hobby with an in depth knowledge of US early classics and later a full worldwide collection.   He graduated from Dartmouth College, and then joined the Army in 1957 during the cold war, becoming fluent in both Russian and German for his military service in Frankfort Germany.  After his service ended in 1959 he received a Master’s degree in 1963 at the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University.    His first marriage was to Berit Joner and so he became fluent in Norwegian as well.  Together that had 2 sons, who have grown to be great men: active, inquisitive, compassionate.   He later married Susan Falsey in 1987 and they began a lifelong wonderful adventure together.   Brad worked in government, both state and federal, in many positions in policy and budgeting.  He was part of the Senior Executive Service, the non-political staff that make the government function according to the policies set by the elected political administration and the Congress.  He believed in good government and in the capacity of staff to perform the work.   Brad’s hobbies ranged from physical activities to intellectual challenges.  The physical included hiking, skiing, running, triathlons, ice hockey, rock climbing, and backpacking.  The intellectual included creating a vast stamp collection, doing extensive research into family genealogy, studying history, and reading German and Russian literature and poetry in their original languages.  He participated in sports mentioned and contributed to their future, joining boards, mentoring newcomers, and donating time and resources to improve their organization.   He received a Lifetime Achievement Award from USA Triathlon for his contribution to the development of that organization and the sport itself.  The week before his last was still full of plans, teaching Russian and Russian songs to our home care helper, even planning to participate in the Missoula Marathon weekend 5k in a wheelchair (with assistance but some steps in there, creating a new category: wheel walk wheel. . )  Survivors include his wife, Susan Falsey, his sons Erik (and wife Allison)  and Arne, his cousin Susan Shine, his grandchildren Jeanette and Alexis (Albert Murrieta IV) , great grandchildren Kingston and Albert Murrieta V  and sisters-in-law Betty, Barbara (brother-in-law Sid Reichman) and Sarah Falsey. Three online organizations helped to make his life with Parkinson’s easier. They are The ParkinsonFoundation (https://www. parkinson. org/), The Michael J Fox Foundation (https://www. michaeljfox. org/) and The Davis Phinney Foundation (https://davisphinneyfoundation. org/).   We are forever grateful to Big Sky Palliative and Hospice for their compassionate and expert assistance and to the homecare agency Holistic Contentment for bringing Lillian and LP and Beth into our lives.  And special admiration and thanks to Terry and Marti for filling our house with love and care when we needed it.  And to Dave and Kathy for joining us in fantastic adventures and supporting us in these hard times.  A celebration of Brad’s life will be held in the late spring or early summer, when the big skies over Montana are as blue as his eyes and the hills are green and the open spaces are filled with life and color.   He was a complex guy, so many folks experienced one facet of him and not the others.  If you knew the Brad in the senior executive service working in Washington DC with a suit and tie evey day you knew him as a dedicated public servant who believed in government and the people of the United States.  But you might not know that he biked into work, trained at lunch time, and completed over 240 triathlons. But, if you knew him as a triathlete: did you know that he was collecting stamps since he was seven, accumulating an enormous collection of classic US stamps and from overseas (European and other nations) as a way to learn about history and people?If you knew him as a young boy playing hockey on the ponds in  Little Compton, you may not have known he spent hours studying the perforations and tiny details on those stamps to put them into the proper printing plate order from 1851 to the 1860s, researching the history of those stamps.  He was an independent boy.  You knew that at 17 he biked across the United States East to West, the hard windy way, on a 3 speed Raleigh steel bike, with one friend, half a pup tent and an army surplus canteen. But did you know that he sent letters back every day to his parents as long as there was a post office to mail them just to keep them a little less worried about his adventures? If  you saw him after retirement becoming a ski instructor and guiding the ski club down the steepest slopes of  the mountain,  did you know his best experiences  were in teaching rank beginners coming in on a bus from Shreveport, Louisiana, and having no idea how to ski?  He loved to see people progress to what ever level they wanted and he did everything possible to make that happen.  If you saw him doing master ski racing and competing in all disciplines, did you know his compromise with his neurologist after his Parkinson’s diagnosis was to race “only” slalom and giant slalom, no more super G and downhill racing? Did you know his fierce desire to excel in sports was also balanced by a drive to help others to succeed in their chosen sport and to mentor people from rank beginners to professionals who ended up in the top tiers of the triathlon world. .  Yes the same guy that you saw competing in so many physical sports still read and enjoyed his books of literature in German and Russian. He spent many hours reading the poetry of one of his best friends. As someone who moved many times for many jobs, he kept in touch with many folks from different eras. He was one of those who wrote the old proverbial Christmas letter every year -- mainly to encourage getting information back from all his old friends. He wanted to see how they were doing. He missed them all.  As he looked forward to the future , he also spent thousands of hours researching genealogy on his family including Leonards, and his multiple Mayflower ancestors, and his other family lines.  Instead of just following his own family he branched out to the multitude of folks in each generation and how they worked and connected with the world. He became the leading expert on those families and was a major resource for hundreds of folks trying to determine their own family history. He wrote and published volumes on the Leonards and donated copies to libraries. He gave multiple sets to the Old Colony Historical Society in Taunton, MA,  for them to sell to raise funds . . He helped connect families via DNA. He wanted to learn as much as possible about science as well as the basic family  history combining   historical references and complex library and internet research to piece together the puzzle that makes a  family. Brad and his wife Sue  traveled extensively with a focus on learning and researching history and genealogical work  around England and Germany and Scandinavia.  He has always been considered a low-key kind of guy, someone who sits and listens, and no one is sure what he's actually doing. Well, that low-key behavior surface hid a deep and consuming capacity for work and volunteering in so many sports and organizations. and professional work.  His work with USA triathlon from the beginning of its founding to his final participation on the Hall of Fame committee earned him a lifetime achievement award from USA triathlon. He worked so hard to get the organization off the ground in the early days. He helped keep it running smoothly as a problem solver and as the person to turn to when things were rough,  He served the Board of Directors,  was head of the age group commission, participated in strategic planning, helped develop the website, headed history project and worked as a major resource for the Hall of Fame executive committee.  His goal in professional life was to keep his standards of excellence high, to work out problems without causing distraction. to provide the resources and opportunity for his staff to thrive. He was appointed by directors  of both Democratic and Republican administrations to tackle the difficult issues, from wage and price controls, to employee housing, to the great fire in Yellowstone. He was appointed by a governor to clean up after a major scandal and told the business owners who confronted him he could not be bought.  His ”low key” skill in listening, thinking, asking the right questions and having no need to get credit for the outcome  produced solutions, not accolades.  Solutions were more satisfying to him.  We will miss all those facets of Brad. They made a fine whole man.

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Charles "Brad" Bradford Leonard

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