Speeches

William Leonhard Celebration of Life

            I’d like to join Dean Wormley in welcoming the Leonhard family and their many friends who are here today. Thank you for joining us for this special gathering to celebrate the life of Bill Leonhard, one of Penn State’s landmark benefactors and one of our most cherished friends.    

I know how much Bill always enjoyed celebrations, so one year for his birthday I wanted to surprise him with a special visit. I gathered together some of our most talented musical theatre students and we stopped by so they could sing him a rousing rendition of Happy Birthday.

Bill was obviously pleased with the attention and he was very gracious with the students. For my part, I was pleased with my “surprise”. But it didn’t take long before I was the one who had the “surprise”--Bill and Wyllis, with their characteristic and remarkable generosity, gave the musical theatre program a gift of one million dollars. I found that with Bill, one good deed always led to another.

            Many of you know that Bill grew up in humble circumstances and that he worked very hard to earn his electrical engineering degree at Penn State in 1936 and his master’s at MIT. He also had an extraordinary career in the army, the Army Corps of Engineers, the Air Force, and Parsons Corporation, an engineering and construction company based in Pasadena, California. His impact was far reaching, with one project that entailed building an entire city--mosques, schools, housing, refineries, a power plant, everything a community needs--in Saudi Arabia for up to fifty-thousand people.

Bill’s career kept the Leonhard family moving across the country, some 37 times. While Bill once joked that his claim to fame was that “he was a good packer and unpacker,” I think we all know that it was really Wyllis who was doing most of the packing and unpacking.

            I had the opportunity to get to know Bill through his philanthropy and his efforts on behalf of Penn State.  Bill served on the executive committee of Penn State’s Grand Destiny Campaign and the Leonhards have given generously to numerous University programs. In the College of Engineering, they endowed a chair, a professorship, an honors program, and the Leonhard Center for the Enhancement of Engineering Education. The Leonhard Building was dedicated in 1999.

While much of Bill and Wyllis’s philanthropy focused on engineering, they were also avid supporters of The College of Arts and Architecture, the College of Education, Intercollegiate Athletics, and the Hershey Medical Center.

            Wyllis once said, “It’s wonderful to have great engineers, but they need to relax sometime too.”

            The fact that Bill listened to his wife’s advice is perhaps the best indication of his good judgment.  

            When Bill and Wyllis were named Philanthropist of the Year in 2004, Bill described their life “as a wonderful ride.” At Penn State, we are fortunate to have been by their side on the journey.      

            I am proud to have considered Bill Leonhard a friend and one who has shared my core beliefs: a longstanding commitment to education; a deep belief in the power of philanthropy; and an irresistible urge to enjoy Creamery ice cream. 

I celebrate his life with the words of William Butler Yeats, “Think where man’s glory most begins and ends and say--my glory was that I had such friends.”

On behalf of Penn State, I want to thank Wyllis and the entire Leonhard family for sharing your husband, father, grandfather, and brother with us, and thank you for being a part of the Penn State family.