Adna Wright Leonard

Biography

He was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, on November 2, 1874, to Adna Bradway Leonard (1837–1916) and Caroline (Kaiser) Leonard (1840–1899). He was elected bishop in 1916.

He married Mary Luella Day (1873–1956) on October 9, 1901, and had the following children: Adna Wright Leonard II (1904–1986); and Phyllis Day (Leonard) Budd (1907–2002).

He was elected to the episcopacy of the Methodist Episcopal Church at the 1916 General Conference. He served in San Francisco, Pittsburgh and Washington, D.C.

Death

Leonard was killed on May 3, 1943, in the crash of the B-24 Liberator Hot Stuff at Fagradalsfjall in Iceland where he was traveling on his way to Iceland to visit Methodist chaplains and their troops. Thirteen other people were killed in the plane crash, including Lieutenant General Frank Maxwell Andrews and Brigadier General Charles H. Barth Jr.

Time magazine wrote on May 17, 1943:

Chief of Array Chaplains William R. Arnold clasped Bishop Adna Wright Leonard's hand: "May the good Lord grant you happy landings." Replied the Methodist Bishop to the Catholic Monsignor: "Especially if one of them is the final landing." Afterwards the Bishop, chairman of the General Commission of Army & Navy Chaplains, climbed into a transatlantic plane. He was off on the first lap of a world tour, suggested by President Roosevelt, to visit U.S. forces in Great Britain, North Africa, India and China, as official representative of more than 30 million U.S. Protestants. First stop was England, where he took part in an open-air service in London's Hyde Park on Easter morning, made the rounds of American camps. Then he hopped across to Northern Ireland for more inspection, afterwards headed for other tours. Last week over bleak Iceland his final landing came. Letting down through a dense fog an Army plane crashed and burned. In the wreckage died General Frank M. Andrews, Bishop Leonard, Army Chaplains Robert H. Humphrey and Frank L. Miller, ten other Army officers and men. All were buried last Saturday in the American cemetery at Reykjavik. Born in Cincinnati 68 years ago, handsome Bishop Leonard, one of the few Methodist Bishops who wore a clerical collar, served churches in the U.S., Puerto Rico, Rome, Italy, was elected a Bishop in 1916. Since 1939 he served as resident Bishop of the Washington Area. A militant prohibitionist, he was once president of New York's Anti-Saloon League, was famed among Methodists for his forthright sermons, his uncompromising attitudes. For eight years he headed the trustees of the University of Southern California, led the financial campaign which saved the institution from collapse, put it on the road to its recent growth. Said President Roosevelt: "A powerful influence is lost to the spiritual life of the nation." Said Bishop Frederick D. Leete: "He was in line of duty. He has now reported to Headquarters."

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Career

• President of the New York Anti-Saloon League
• Chairman The Methodist Commission on Chaplains
• Headed trustees of the University of Southern California

References

References

1. "Guide to the Adna Wright Leonard Collection". United Methodist Archives and History Center.