Lenoard Leigh

Parents: Mark and Jane (nee: Blair) Leigh

Birth: April 10, 1923, St. Paul’s Hospital, Vancouver, British

Columbia, Canada

Death: December 11, 2007, Coquitlam, B.C., Canada (A sweet

man who developed diabetes and cancer in the last few years of his life).

Nationality: English (Mark Leigh) and Irish (Jane Blair)

Siblings: Ronald (Ronnie) b: 1924 – d: 2003

Occupation: Cabinet Maker, Salesman – Restmore and Sealy

Married: October 21, 1944, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

House on Kaslo
House: 6670 Halifax Street, Burnaby from 1957-1988
House: #36-2865 Glen Drive, Coquitlam from 1988-2007

Spouse: Elizabeth Margaret Watson

Children: *Richard (Rick)

**Karen

Grandchildren: Grandchildren:
*Christine Leigh **Ian
*Graeme **Scott
*Sarah

Did you know:

Len’s dad spelled his name Lenoard that’s the reason his name is spelled other than expected. Most of Len’s official
records are spelled Leonard. So obviously it doesn’t really matter.
Len (or Baba as he was called by his grandchildren) was nicknamed ‘foot activated’ because the minute he placed his
feet on the floor when he got out of bed, he would start whistling or singing. He loved to sing and dance and play his
music when he was working in the garage.
Len was a Seaman in the Royal Canadian Naval Volunteer Reserve from August 19, 1942 to April 4, 1945. As his
children recall, dad told the story that when he was departing the navy he threw his life jacket overboard and it sunk.
Dad also told the story of how he was the first to initiate his discharge on 9/9/44 and the last to be officially released.
Len would travel across the water to Vancouver Island every week between September 1944 and March 1945 to ask:
“Have you found me yet?” Apparently, they lost his papers and could not officially release him until they could ‘find
him’.
Len was a happy and loving life kind of guy. He was always telling ‘true stories’ or ‘jokes’ as we called them. You
never knew what he would come up to next. In 2001, the Extended Leigh family went on an Alaska Inside Passage
cruise. In fact, there were 21 of us on the Royal Caribbean Cruise ship – Radiance of the Seas. Well, it was only a
matter of hours when we were sitting with Len and over comes a server…they pause at our group, glance at Len and
say, “Another Miller lite, Len?”. We were astonished that before we even set sail, the servers knew his name and his
drink of choice – That was Len. He was so personable, everyone knew him within minutes of his arrival. Another
memorable event on this cruise was when his granddaughter, Sarah, thought it would be great to do a game with her
Baba and a few other unlucky family volunteers. The game was sort of treasure hunt. The M.C. would call out an
item and you’d have to find it as quick as you can. Well, close to the end of the game, the M.C. said to find an item
with teeth. Sarah runs over to Baba and asks him for his false teeth…he whips his teeth out and she runs with them
to the finish line. The M.C. was not only shocked, he was amazed that someone would bring teeth…he thought she
would have found a comb. But Baba was always more than willing to do anything you asked him…no questions
asked.
Len was a good golf player and would always bring home a prize at his annual work party golf tournaments. He was
great bowler too!
Another great pastime of Len’s was taking photos. I don’t really know where he got his training but he was the only
person in the 70’s that I knew could take multiple exposure shots on the same frame of a 35 mm roll of camera film,
without doing anything at all. One never knew what his photos would look like until we got them developed. Some
photos came out amazing…while other photos were blurry, or had multiple faces superimposed on the same shot or
you would only see an edge of a foot, arm, head, etc. Len just loved taking pictures and then he’d put them in
albums. He left quite a collection of memorabilia for his children and grand children to remember the family by.
When the kids were very young, the family would spend their summers down in Birch Bay in their trailer (that he
built himself) and Len would commute to Canada to work every day.
His closest friends were Nan and Charlie Douglas. They used to live at the corner of Kensington and Winch and they’d
come over every Christmas Eve and they’d eat the reindeer treats as they left the house. However, they moved to
Victoria.
When Len started coaching his son’s soccer league, they become friends with Cliff and Rita Gibbons who also had a
cabin down in Birch Bay. They enjoyed hanging out with friends and family in Birch Bay. Len particularly enjoyed the
family reunion weekends with his cousins in Washington. He was a willing participant to dress up for the Sunday
potluck dinners.
Len was a cabinet maker all his life. He made anything you would ask him…cabinets, picture frames, book shelves,
dressers, if it could be made out of wood, Baba would make it.