Louis Leonard returned for his first class reunion this past May -- his first in 65 years.
You know a graduate has been away from Brown when he passes the Sharpe Refectory and asks, "That’s new, isn’t it?" So inquired Louis Leonard, who returned last month for his first class reunion–65 years after graduating in 1936. "The campus is now outside the wrought-iron fence," observed the 89-year-old Leonard, strolling arm—in-arm with wife Elizabeth along George Street. "It’s bigger. And faster moving, too." The last time he walked campus was during the Depression. Those were hard times for a young man from Chebeague (pronounced She-big) Island, Maine. His father was a lobsterman who later ran the general store. The family scrimped and saved to send him to Brown. Leonard, who still has a Down East accent, reached campus after attending the island’s one-room school and spending two years at Bridgton Academy, which was started almost 200 years ago to prepare young men from rural Maine for college. At Brown, Leonard used textbooks in the John Hay Library instead of purchasing his own. He worked as a waiter and dishwasher at the Faculty Club. Late at night and in the wee hours, he tended coal-burning furnaces in private homes near campus. After doing surveying work in Florida following his graduation, Leonard landed at Pratt & Whitney Aircraft in Hartford in 1940, and he met Elizabeth (Duke ’43). Married now for 48 years, they raised four children in a home where education was considered the foundation for success. He retired in 1976. Their oldest child, Henrietta Leonard, M.D., professor of psychiatry and human behavior at the Medical School, had repeatedly asked her dad to come back for a reunion. This year, he finally accepted. "It’s very emotional for him to come back after all these years," she said. "He knows many of his classmates have died." When it came to reunions, "there was always something else going on in our lives," said the senior Leonard. "We were busy or traveling. We never happened to be around." About 20 classmates gathered for their 65th reunion this year. Several recognized Leonard by face. "There was an air of camaraderie that has lasted all these years," he said. "When you saw someone from your class, it was as if you had last seen the person yesterday. It was just like that person was your brother. Just the fact you were from same class, and you were immediate friends." At the All Class Memorial Service in Sayles Hall, where Leonard attended chapel as a student, he lit a candle for deceased classmates. "I sat there and looked at the list of names of those in the class who had died over the last five years," he said. "I checked off with a pencil all who had passed away. It took me all apart. I sort of was in shock." F
Louis Leonard on campus for his class reunion. (Photo by Frank Mullin)
"When I walked through the Van Wickle Gates, I had a flashback to 65 years ago. As a student I used to stand outside the gates and wonder if I was going to get to walk out through them."
As for marching, Leonard said he "had never been cheered for in my whole life." Elizabeth called the sustained applause "surprising, sincere and deeply respectful."
"All the presidents, Gregorian, Blumstein, and Simmons, plus the other VIPs, were cheering and clapping," she said. "It was emotionally overwhelming to see them so enthusiastic and proud of alumni.
"The graduating seniors couldn’t stop cheering. Those young people are to be commended, because elderly people usually don’t get much notice. We’d heard the expression ‘the Brown family,’ and it’s true."
Henrietta Leonard said it was the right time for her father to return. "News of the movie, 'Pearl Harbor,' and talk of the Depression era were hanging over the weekend," she said. "It was very solemn at times."
Her father wished he’d come back sooner.
"Being here takes me back to how much has passed through my life," Leonard said. "As soon as I walked through Faunce Arch onto the Green, it was as if it was the next morning after the day I had first left."