Obituary
Father Clyde Leonard, WWII vet, served in several parishes
By Father Robert M. O'Grady
Posted: 10/14/2011
Father Clyde Leonard Pilot file photo
A native of the Hub where he was born on Jan. 22, 1927, Father Clyde A. Leonard died after a protracted illness at Queen Anne Nursing Care in Hingham on Oct. 5. He was 84 years old.
He was one of four children of the late James and Regina (Carroll) Leonard. Following high school he entered military service in the United States Navy and saw action in both the Atlantic and Pacific theaters. Returning home he entered Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge from which he was graduated in 1952 with a Bachelor of Science degree. Following graduation he was employed in the private sector before entering archdiocesan seminaries.
Richard Cardinal Cushing ordained him to the priesthood at Holy Cross Cathedral on Feb. 6, 1964 and gave him the first of six assignments that he would receive as an assistant, an associate, or parochial vicar between ordination and his retirement in 1995. At the time of his ordination he was 37 years old, a full decade older than most of the other class members. He had seen a world that his classmates probably could only have imagined.
St. Mary, Franklin (1964-1970); St. Kevin, Dorchester (1970-1974); Immaculate Conception, Stoughton (1974-1981); St. Mary of the Sacred Heart, Hanover (1981-1991); Our Lady of Lourdes, in Revere's Beachmont section (1991-1992); and St. Helen, Mother of the Emperor Constantine Parish in Norwell (1992-1995). Following his retirement he assisted, as health permitted, in several South Shore parishes including St. Joseph the Worker, Hanson and St. Thecla, Pembroke.
Father Christopher Hickey, currently the pastor of St. Mary of the Sacred Heart, Hanover was the homilist at Father Leonard's Funeral Mass celebrated Oct. 11 at the Hanover church. Among the concelebrants were friends, classmates and priests with whom Father Leonard had served: Msgr. William Glynn, senior priest, Duxbury; Father John Hannon, pastor, St. Joseph the Worker, Hanson; Father Henry Doherty, former pastor of St. Mary of the Sacred Heart; Father James McCune, Chaplain to Senior Priests of the archdiocese; Father John "Jerry" Shea, senior priest, Marshfield and Father Martin Connor, senior priest at the Hanover parish and Father Ted Kofitse, parochial vicar at St. Mary, Hanover.
Father Leonard is survived by his siblings Judith Maloney, Yarmouth, Maine; Regina Scannell, Harvard; and Everett Leonard, Hingham.
