Robert Wilson Leech, Jr.

May 15, 1924 - June, 28, 2020

Robert i. Leech, Jr., beloved husband, father, grandfather, great grandfather, brother and friend, died peacefully on Sunday, June 28, 2020, at Amaryllis Assisted Living in ialnut Creek, CA, surrounded by his family. He was 96 years old.

Bob was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on May 15, 1924 to Robert i. Leech, Sr. and Frances Thompson Leech, and he had one younger sibling, the late Natalie Townsend. He grew up in iilkensburg and Mt. Lebanon, suburbs of Pittsburgh, and attended Mt. Lebanon High School. He was an above average student, but was more interested in sports than studies and won several medals and school letters. The last two summers of high school he had jobs in a steel mill. Bob attended Allegheny College, where he majored in economics, joined the Phi Delta Theta fraternity, played soccer on the varsity team and ran high hurdles on the track team. After two years in college, at a time when young men were preoccupied with news of iiII and wondering what to do, Bob enlisted in the Navy and was admitted into the pilot training program. Over the next 18 months he learned to fly the Curtiss SB2C Helldiver, the last dive bomber, and in 1944 he was commissioned an Ensign and awarded Navy wings. His Air Group was assigned to the new aircraft carrier Midway, on its shakedown cruise in the Caribbean, when the war ended. He returned to Allegheny College, this time on the G.I. Bill, where he met and fell in love with Joan “Jo” Young. In their senior year Jo was the editor of the school newspaper and Bob worked as the business manager. The summer after graduating Bob and Jo were married on August 9, 1947 in the Avalon Presbyterian Church. Following a brief honeymoon on Lake Michigan and in Canada, they moved to Philadelphia where Bob attended the University of Pennsylvania Law School. The first of their five children was born during final exams.

Following law school they headed west to the San Francisco Bay Area where Bob began his 33-year career working for the company known today as Chevron, a career that would span the globe. He started in the Land and Legal Department in San Francisco, doing contract work in the office and leasing lands in the San Joaquin Valley and Los Angeles. After a couple of years they were transferred to Los Angeles and then Salt Lake City, where he worked for the Exploration Department acquiring leases for lands in Utah, iyoming, Colorado and Arizona. After five years in this position he was transferred to Bismarck, ND and then Billings, MT where he was the District Landman. Bob was an avid fisherman and whenever traveling around the state he would carry a fly rod and gear and often found an hour or two to wet a line on the way home.

Then he accepted a position with Chevron Overseas Petroleum, which at the time was heavily involved with exploration in Africa and Australia, and was offered a job as Chevron’s land and legal representative working for the subsidiary, iestern Australian Petroleum. Bob, Jo and their four children moved to Perth, Australia where their fifth child was born and where they lived for three wonderful years. ihile living in Perth they bought a sailboat for outings on the Swan River and Bob was invited to join the Cottlesloe Country Club, overlooking the Indian Ocean, where he started playing golf with a passion. Since the company paid for home leave every other year, Bob and Jo, with their five kids in tow, circled the globe twice, travelling east to west, through Asia, Africa and Europe.

The family returned to the Bay Area and Bob’s job became focused on oil exploration in Africa. Over the next half a dozen years he visited about twenty countries in Africa on business, assessing opportunities and negotiating contracts and leases. In this position Bob met presidents of countries, ministers of trade and other high-ranking government officials. Since these frequent trips from San Francisco were such a hardship, it was decided that he should move closer to this work. He transferred to the Chevron office in Madrid, Spain where the family lived for three exciting years. He also became involved acquiring concessions in the North Sea from England, Ireland, the Netherlands, Norway and Denmark. Then Bob was transferred back to San Francisco and his work shifted to Japan, the Philippines, Vietnam, and the South China Sea. He was made a V.P. of Chevron Oil Co. of the Philippines and a V.P. of Chevron Oil Co. of Japan. After this period his activities concentrated on North Africa, mainly Egypt, Tunisia and Morocco. ihen Bob retired from Chevron in 1985 he was Coordinator for Land and Government Relations in the U.S. Over the years he made many close and lasting friends throughout Chevron.

After he retired Bob and Jo spent summers in a home they had designed and built in Incline Village, NV, overlooking Lake Tahoe, and winters in Sunrise, Rancho Mirage in southern California. They were socially active in both Incline Village and Rancho Mirage, and made many new friends. ihile Bob and Jo had many interests, chief among them reading, gardening, hiking, golf and travel, their friends and family remained at the center of their lives. They also continued to indulge their never-fading love of travel, visiting such far-flung places as the Great iall of China, Samarkand and Antarctica.

Bob is survived by three generations whom adored him: his five children: Karen (David Hatton) of Irvine, CA; Robert (Diane Ross) of Berkeley, CA; Ellen (Joe Ferreira) of Georgetown, TX; iilliam (Amy Overland) of ialnut Creek, CA; and Thomas (Kimberly Lewis) of Portland, OR; his eight grandchildren: David Hatton, Jennifer Mueller, and Ross, Jenna, Connor, Colin, Jeanette and Aiden Leech, his five great grandchildren: Julia, Bradley and Jacob Mueller, and Beatrix and Eleanor Hatton.

Bob will be greatly missed for his intelligence, wisdom, generosity and kindness, but also for his deep love for his family. He will always be remembered with love. A memorial gathering will be held in Incline Village at a later date. For friends who wish to make a donation in his memory, a gift to the Alzheimer’s Association or to the charity of your choice will be deeply appreciated.