William F. Leonard

Bill Leonard passed away at his lake house outside of Houston, Texas on Saturday, June 13, 2026. He was in front of the lake surrounded by his girlfriend Sandra, his brother Robert and sister Judith, AXP fraternity brother, John, and close friends/employees from his construction company. His other sister Patricia was unable to get to Houston.

There is a celebration of life on August 19, 2026, at 11:00 am at the River Point Church, 21000 Southwest Freeway, Richmond, TX 77469 with a small luncheon nearby. His ashes were previously spread in a private graveside service on July 22nd with family members in his hometown of Tully NY.

Bill grew up in Preble NY (Suburb of Tully, NY next to Rt 81 south of Syracuse). When he was 13, he started Bill’s Bait Shop where he sold stuff to fishermen in the area. When he was 16, he worked at a gas station, so he hired his sister Judy to run the shop for $15 for the entire summer (He made up for the wages years later including interest and penalties, but Judy held out on signing a NDA. Later, he got his dad Marty to run the shop, the revenue officer came by, but Marty said he just worked there and gave them Bill’s number in Houston, but nothing ever came of it.

Judy tells the story about Marty having a few drinks on a weekend night and then started bragging about his American Indian heritage. When challenged to prove it, he said his kids all had Indian names. His oldest son Bob was named “Number 1 Son”. Patsy was named “Queen Doe” Bill was named “My Boy Bill”. It was always my boy Bill, anytime, anywhere. Judy was named “Princess Little Running Mouth”. She proudly still answers that name.

Bill attended Clarkson College of Technology (now Clarkson University) and graduated with a Civil Engineering degree in 1974. He later went on to get a master’s degree in management from Clarkson in 1976. He started his own construction company in Houston, TX which later developed that company into a company building McDonald’s restaurants and properties in Houston and the surrounding areas.

While other classmate had met with Bill’s antics when he lived in the dorms freshman year, I met Bill when we both started pledging Alpha Chi Rho in the Spring of 1971. It was the start of a lifelong friendship. Before the start of sophomore year, we both gutted our assigned room at the fraternity house at 77 Elm Street and rebuilt it with bunkbeds, desk, wallpaper, shingles, TV, sound system and outdoor deck. It took a week but proved well worth it over the next two years. We later started a Little Sister program at AXP and the Crow Down Beer Blast in the Spring.

Bill and I were involved with the school newspaper – him as Circulation Manager so every week he would drive to Massena to pickup the newspapers and then distributed them all over Clarkson and SUNY Potsdam campuses. He later became Class President for his Junior and Senior years, and he planned the best Senior Week Clarkson ever had. He managed a budget of $30,000 in 1974 for a weeklong celebration with concerts, parties, BBQs, movies, recreation and whatever seniors wanted to do during the time between finals and graduation. The Dean of Students, A George Davis, later asked how the budget was going and Bill told him it was close, but he might need a little help which was done.

AXP nominated Bill as its Ice Carnival King Candidate in 1974. Bill won King as Captain Ahab Jet under the fraternity’s Moby Dick theme and the fraternity won the overall competition. I had noticed a girl who was the Queen Candidate for Omega sorority during the Ice Carnival Competition. I said for weeks I would ask her out. Eventually, Bill said that if I didn’t ask her out, he would. I did the following week – we just celebrated our 48th anniversary.

But Bill’s “claim to Fame” was his Captain Jet nickname. It started his sophomore year when a girl named Gail gave Bill a grey felt hat with a Captain Jet emblem sown onto the folded front lid. He really liked it but that was only the beginning. For some reason, he started writing a “Captain Jet Says” feature in the school newspaper, “The Intergrator”.

With Captain Jet saying:
“A rolling stone gathers no moss, but what doea that say about an overripe pineapple.”
“An apple a day keeps the doctor away, but it doesn’t do much for your fruit bills.”
“There will always be a tomorrow and visa-versa.”
“If you can keep your head while others are losing theirs, you’ll be taller than everybody.”
“ A man with a hat on his head is a happy man, but a man with a meatloaf on his head will never go hungry.”
“The difference between the cha cha and pea green paint is that everyone can learn to cha-cha.”
And many more from February 1972 to April 1974. Students would look forward to his column each week while the newspaper grew from 4 pages to 32 pages during our tenure.

I’m writing this obituary and sending it out because I lost my best friend. Throughout college, we did a lot together and had a lot of fun. At the beginning of Sophomore year, we dressed up as telephone repair men. Armed with hard hats and a tool belt, borrowed phone book and a phone receiver and went to the restricted freshmen girls only Knowles dorms at SUNY Potsdam. We travelled the six floors, knocking on doors -when a girl answered, we explained that we were there to check their phones. After documenting their name and number, we explained that we were Clarkson Students and invited them to our 1st fraternity party that year. It was well attended.

After that, disillusioned with my being a math major, I went to the Engineering Dean to switch majors. He asked why I wanted to be a Civil Engineer, and I answered that my fraternity brother Bill was a civil engineering student, and he seemed to be having more fun at school than I was – he let me switch.

Other activities involved streaking from our senior residence house on Lawrence Ave. through TKE’s property to the AXP house (modestly holding a towel) and later posing as we swallowed goldfish in a phone booth in Snell Hall. We also borrowed AGO’s aluminum canoe and went down the Raquette River to paint the Rock. Unfortunately, the current was too strong, so we missed it only to go through the rapids which turned out to be 6’ high falls that we went over. (No Site Investigation) The canoe bent in two; we floated downstream in freezing water until we could get to shore and get a ride back to our house. Sorry AGO – the canoe is out there somewhere. All in fun and excitement with a few activities that will remain between us. We skied all night at Song Mountain in Tully one New Year’s Eve and started Clarkson ski trips to Monte Tremblant, Canada.

After junior year, I introduced Bill to the engineering company, Greenman-Pederson that I had worked for the summer before. We both worked on a road job in Little Falls, NY and would also work for them after graduation there and on a Interstate 95 project near Baltimore, MD. He left to go back to graduate school, and I followed him to Clarkson for an MBA the following year.

We kept in touch throughout the years, mostly miles apart except for a short time when I was in Austin TX. Saw each other at a few Clarkson reunions -the last our 50th. Bill was doing fine then – gave a speech in front of our graduating class. The following year, when visited me in NJ after a trip to New England to see his brother and sisters, he had some minor breathing issues but indicated it was under control, but it was going to get worst over the years to come. He was taking medication. Last year, when he visited, the breathing issue was still there, a bit worst – he just had to be careful with his activities – no mountain climbing he would joke. In the spring of this year, he was trying to get his cardiologist to get with his pulmonologist to schedule a procedure to correct an artery issue next to a previously installed stent. He joked that he didn’t know which one was going to kill him. Then they put him through a stress test, and you know what he said able that doctor. In May of this year, he felt a pain in his side -went to the ER and they said he had pneumonia – after a week in the hospital – on medication – still working from his bed, he got better and they sent him home. He was looking forward to getting back on the plan to get a new stent installed. A week later follow up on the pneumonia scan revealed he had stage 4 lung cancer. Still optimistic, since he had a bout of different cancer that was cured 15 years ago, he wanted to get the four-week treatment started so he could get on with the cardiac issue resolution. Robbie Robinson, AXP, and I wanted to go and visit him that weekend but he didn’t want us to come and see him in bed so we didn’t. He got his first treatment and got sent home. Felt fine the next day, but later that night, couldn’t breathe and collapsed. Back to the hospital. He decided over the next few days that being in that bed over the remaining treatment was not for him. It all went to fast. He told be over the phone that “You’ve got to know when to hold them and know when to fold them” – true Captain Jet even though it had been said many times before.

I flew down a day later and spent time with Bill in the hospital. We talked and joked about all the good times at Alpha Chi Rho and Clarkson. Talked with Bob and Judy and learned about Bill growing up. The next day, Saturday, we visited in the morning and afternoon. Got some strawberry milkshakes from McDonald’s which Bill enjoyed because they were cold. He was supposed to be transferred to the Lakehouse that afternoon, but things got postponed. I flew out at six. He got transferred later that evening and passed away a few hours later. I found out he had passed away the following day when I was driving on I-81 an hour north of Tully as I was driving up to work on the fraternity house.

There’s so much to tell that one letter cannot cover it all. Whenever, I was traveling to upstate NY and going by the Tully exit (You could see his old white house from Interstate 81), I’d give him a call – talk about good times and what we each were up to. Lately we talked about work projects at the fraternity house. When I needed something that the Board wasn’t prepared to approve – he said how much do you need and sent up a check. He always encouraged me to keep going and said he wished he could be there to help.

This letter is hard to write – one I wished I never had to. I lost a classmate, a fraternity brother, and a fellow employee but most important to me I lost my best friend. We had the very best of times together. I was lucky enough to be able to spend two days with him before he passed away. Unfortunately, at my age, I attended some funerals or heard of some people passing away lately and hadn’t been able to see them for a few years before when they were alive. So, my hope in writing this is that whoever reads this, that you’ll make the effort to stay connected, reconnect or reach out to those you know or knew so that you can spend some time with them like Bill and I were able to do. On a personal note, if you knew Bill or Captain Jet, send a note to Sandra at ssecheavens@aol.com or attend the Celebration of Life if you are in the Houston area.

Finally, if you are traveling on Interstate 81 in the Tully/Preble area, look to the west to see a white house in the distance – and remember Bill Leonard – Captain Jet as thinks up more sayings like “The only trouble with turtles is they just don’t want to dance.”