Bruce Riley Leonard was born in 1920 and graduated from Brush High School, Cleveland, Ohio, then Purdue University with a degree in mechanical engineering in 1942. He entered the U.S. Navy in 1942 as an Ensign and served in the South Pacific during WWII and completed his service as a Commander.
After the war, Bruce worked for Boeing in Seattle, then NACA/NASA at the Lewis Lab in Cleveland until he retired in 1974. He has lived in Rancho Bernardo, California and Cleveland, Ohio since then.
Bruce began flying gliders at the Lost Nation Airport in Cleveland in the 1930's. He and his wife, Laura Mae, a Navy W.A.V.E., flew private planes in the 1950's and 1960's and shared a passion for boating trips and adventures.
Bruce has loved his teaching work with the U.S. Power Squadron and the NASA Eagle Scout Troop. He was excited when he first visited the Smithsonian's Udvar-Hazy Center in 2007 to see so many of the planes he had flown during his career.