Obituary of Robert Routte Leonard

Robert Routte Leonard, age 90, was born July 18, 1925 in Paterson, New Jersey. He resided in Las Vegas, Nevada and Savannah, Georgia. Robert began his new journey in heaven on Saturday, December 5th, 2015. Robert Routte Leonard was born to parents Donald Durie Leonard and Rose Routte Leonard and grew up in Ridgewood, New Jersey with his sister, Elizabeth L. Saile. He was a devoted husband to Gwendolyn H. Leonard for 57 years and provided a beautiful life for his wife and three daughters. He also cared for his own parents in their later years. He attended prep school at Mount Hermon and graduated from Babson College, the top entrepreneurship college in the U.S. He was a WWII Veteran. The attack on Pearl Harbor occurred while he was a student at Mount Hermon. Therefore, at age 16, he enlisted in the Navy and served as a Radio Operator in the Pacific on Ebeye Island, Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands. While working in New York City, he created a wonderful family hobby farm in Tewksbury, with sheep, steer, pigs, geese, chickens, rabbits, bees, dogs, and a pony. This was a rich experience, remembered fondly by family and friends. He was an accomplished Textile Marketing executive and spent most of his career at Milliken & Co in New York City and Spartanburg, SC. He had several patents in military composite camouflage construction for tactical concealment of equipment, particularly rotary wing aircraft. He enjoyed sailing, camping, skiing, farming, art, jazz music, his dogs and being with his family. He is survived by his wife, Gwendolyn H. Leonard, daughters, Sally Jones (Chris Jones), Nancy Leonard and Marguerite Leonard and sister, Elizabeth L. Saile, his grand-daughters, Jessica Jones and Meghan Jones and his great grandson, John Albert Jones. Services will be held in Ridgewood, New Jersey. He will be missed dearly by his family and friends.