Obituary of Richard Jeffery Leake

Richard Jeffery (Jeff) Leake, age 83, passed away on Monday August 21st 2017 in Austin Texas. He was born on November 16, 1933 in Pittsburgh Pa. to Richard Costello Leake and Kathryn Alice Duff-Leake. He is survived by 6 children, Kathryn Ann Osborne (Tom), Richard Jeffrey, George Timothy, Joseph Patrick, Maria ViPond (Mark), and Michael Noble Leake. 8 grandchildren; David Lee Paulson, Courtney Paulson Hunter, Sage Masten-Leake, Teal Masten-Leake, Brain ViPond, Ashley ViPond, Sarah ViPond, and Sampson Leake. 3 great grandchildren; Thomas Billheimer, Gabrielle Billheimer, and Ruby Hunter. Sisters; Judy Bauer, Lori Hendricks, and brother, Jim Leake. Numerous nephews and nieces. Jeff was preceded in death by his parents, Sister Nancy McCaulley, grandson Luke Olin Paulson, Rosemary Gullo Leake, and Jean Leake.

Jeff was well loved and had a full life. He grew up in the suburb of Westview and attended St. Theresa’s, North Catholic, and Westview HS. He was a friend to many in his neighborhood and school. He was an avid athlete with nine varsity letters in football, baseball, and track in HS. In college at Washington Jefferson, he played varsity Football and held a school record on the track team. Awarded outstanding Intramural Athlete with league high scorer in basketball. Highest ROTC Physical fitness score at Carnegie Mellon and co-winner of IBM Engineer Training Golf tournament.

He developed a love for his vocation in Electrical Engineering and graduated from Carnegie Mellon BSEE in ’56. Then joined IBM’s Space Guidance Center team which led him to a career path in this field specializing in rocket and missile guidance systems. He took leave to serve 2 years in the army. Upon returning to IBM he completed his MSEE at Syracuse University. He then left IBM to complete his Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering at Syracuse. Upon completion in 1964 he started at the University of Notre Dame as an Electrical Engineering professor and tenured within 6 years. During his 18 years at Notre Dame he directed 8 Ph.D. dissertations and numerous master theses. He was awarded and directed numerous research grants from the likes of Air Force Office of Scientific Research, National Science Foundation, N.A.S.A, Office of Navel Research, and others. He consulted for NASA’s Marshall Space Flight center’s ascent & reentry Guidance and Control systems for the Saturn and Apollo missions participating in the 1st moon landing operations.

Jeff also worked for the California State University system for over 15 years either full time or part time at the campuses of Chico, Fresno, or Fullerton. During this period he also work will several aero-space related companies such as Hughes Aircraft, Science & Applied Technology, Pennwalt Corp., Bell Aerospace and others.

Jeff’s greatest pleasures were the outdoors, traveling, and children. He loved to take the family camping all over the country to many of the most beautiful places in the US. He took his family to Brazil for a year on a professor exchange program and taught in Portuguese for five quarters. He also took a pre-retirement trip around the world visiting over 12 countries. His love for adventure and the outdoors is instilled in his children and grandchildren. He enjoyed, and was good at, tennis and dancing in his later life; entering and winning completions and tournaments. He always remained an avid sportsman. One year he published a paper on “A method for ranking teams: With an application to college football” which was published in 1976 in the book “Management Science in Sports”. His application was to apply the theory of Electrical resistivity to ranking teams. Peter Woolfe of the BCS used his concept in part of his formula for ranking teams.

Jeff suffered from Alzheimer’s late in life leading up to his death. He will always be remembered as a sweet caring person, a dedicated father, and well liked educator. 

There will be a celebration of life on Sunday September 3, 2017 at 2 PM in the afternoon in Austin Texas at the Highroad on Dawson (700 Dawson Rd. Austin TX 78704).