The Foreign Service Journal, July-August 2012

J U LY- A U G U S T 2 0 1 2 / F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L 71 course in haute cuisine at the Cordon Bleu School in Paris and put its lessons to good use in her various homes over the next 50 years, especially in the many elegant events she hosted in con- nection with her husband’s work. In 1964, the couple returned to Washington, where Mr. Leonard moved through several positions in the State Department, becoming the desk officer for Korea in 1968. He was charged particularly with finding a way to free the crew of the USS Pueblo , which had been attacked and captured by the North Koreans. In late 1968, it was one of Mrs. Leonard’s ideas that was shaped into what became known as the Leonard Proposal. In December 1968 it was accepted by the North Korean nego- tiators at Panmunjom, and the crew was released just before Christmas. In 1969 the Nixon administration sent Mr. Leonard as head of the U.S. delegation to the Disarmament Con- ference in Geneva, with Eleanor and children more or less in tow. After three years and two arms control treaties, Mr. Leonard retired from the Foreign Service, and the couple settled in New York City. There he served as president of the United Nations Asso- ciation of New York for four years be- fore accepting an offer to become deputy permanent representative at the U.N. under Ambassador Andrew Young. During their New York years, Mrs. Leonard founded an international dis- cussion group for diplomatic wives, making a small crack in the wall of masculine diplomacy. She volunteered with the National Democratic Com- mittee for presidential campaigns in 1968, 1972 and 1976. When the Carter administration sent Mr. Leonard to Egypt and Israel in 1977 as deputy special representa- tive under Ambassador Robert Strauss, the couple returned to the Middle East, where they had begun their State Department service some 30 years ear- lier. They retired in early 1981. At this point, as her husband recalls, Mrs. Leonard decided that it was “her turn.” Drawing on her ability with computers, she found a position in 1984 at the Environmental Protection Agency developing ways to present complex statistics in an intelligible for- mat. After a decade at EPA, Mrs. Leonard started a desktop publishing business in 1996. At the same time, she served as treasurer of the Virginia Native Plant Society’s Piedmont chap- ter, volunteered at several other or- ganizations and welcomed many friends and family at the couple’s dream home, which they had built in the wooded hills of Fauquier County. Family and friends remember Mrs. Leonard as someone who brought the highest standards to every task she un- dertook. An intellectual with a distin- guished sense of style, she provided perfect elegance to the many events she hosted. Survivors include her husband of 63 years, James F. Leonard of Arlington County; a son from her first marriage, A. Lee Thompson IV of Potomac, Md.; four daughters from her second mar- riage, Cindy Leonard of Arlington, Va., Val Leonard of Washington, D.C., Car- olyn Leonard of Fairbanks, Alaska, and Pamela Leonard of Arlington, Va.; two sisters; and five grandchildren. A daughter from her second marriage, Diana Leonard, died in 1980. Grant Victor McClanahan , 93, a retired Foreign Service officer, died I N M E M O R Y