Leonard Landa, farm kid, educator, park ranger, accomplished financial professional, husband, father, grandfather, great grandfather, avid golfer, skier, lover of cars and car shows, community leader, storyteller and the most loyal friend to those he loved â passed away from complications of COVID-19 on the evening of Dec. 18 in Phoenix with his wife by his side holding his hand. Heâd turned 80 on Nov. 11, and he and his wife, Barbara, celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary on Dec. 2.
Leonard was born in Hamilton, MT and grew up in southwest North Dakota on a farm that his Norwegian grandparents had homesteaded in 1906. He and his two brothers grew up in the same house, as did his mother and her siblings. He went to a one-room school on the prairie for the first eight years. He went to high school in Scranton, graduating in 1958. He was active in 4-H, attended Union Prairie Church with his family and many neighbors and attended Dickinson State College where he earned a