RIP Leonard Lee - any stories about the man?

[Matt Lau]

July 7, I was really sad to see that Leonard Lee passed away.

Lee Valley was the first company to sell me a decent tool.
Over the years, I've grown really fond of the company for a thoughtfully well-made tools, impeccable customer service, superior quality control, and an understated commitment to integrity.

Leonard did something special to create such a company.
Does anyone have stories about the man?

-Matt

ps. I'll add mine. While reading up on workbench design at the library, I had to double take at the intro from Leonard. I think his quote was "Life is better with a workbench in your office," along with a picture of his personal "hidden" workbench.

[Matt Lau]

As an aside, I googled Canica systems and found the following article http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2686057/

I'm not sure if Leonard designed the system himself, but it's pretty brilliant.
He'd have to understand at least some of three possible disciplines: orthopedics, plastic surgery, and dermatology (adhesive).

On my end, it reminds me a lot of what I see with braces and elastics.

[Derek Cohen]

Vic Tesolin has a wonderful memory - and an interesting insight into Leonard Lee - on his blog: http://www.minimalistwoodworker.com/blog/

Vic is the resident woodworker and does the demo videos for Lee Valley. I had the great pleasure of Vic coming over for a barbie recently on a recent visit of Oz. He is a big guy in more ways than one! :)

Regards from Perth

Derek

[george wilson]

Derek,do you mean that Vic came over to play with your Barbie doll??:):):)

I didn't meet Mr. Lee,but one day a LV catalog appeared in the mail,with my bronze eggbeater drill on the cover. I was very surprised and wondered how it got there. I had made it years ago for a wealthy collector in California,far from the East coast.

I called LV and got Mr. Lee on the phone. Apparently he had met the collector at some point and had photographed the drill. Why,I don't know,as the collector had a very large warehouse full of tools he had collected. But,there it was. We talked for some time,and I sent him a White backsaw reproduction. An early 18th. C. saw that was known to be popular in Va. at the time. Curiously,only one is known to have survived,and that was the one we used as a model to reproduce a bunch for use in the Historic Area of the museum. He sent me his sharpening book. He mentioned that he was going into medical equipment. I can't recall everything we talked about as it was quite a while ago. But,a most enjoyable experience.

I have posted the catalog cover here some years ago. It is no longer in my bunch of attachments . It seems that when new ones are introduced,old pictures get deleted. Or at least it seems that way as they seem to go missing.

[Mike Henderson]

I never met Leonard Lee in person. But I got to know him through his book on sharpening which I read when I was started woodworking after I retired. It's still the best book on sharpening, in my opinion. He affected and influenced so many people by creating and selling woodworking tools and products and by passing along his knowledge.

Mike

[Ray Selinger]

There are some personal remembrances https://forum.canadianwoodworking.com/forum/woodworking/woodworking-aa/1061561-leonard-lee-a-legend-moves-on/page2:

Forty years on, the hole is still there, Rob.A mans greatness is measured in the lives he touched.

From the time of my first Lee Valley catalogue that received in the mail from sending in money from an Harrowsmith ad in 1979 or 8, he has helped be a better woodworker.

[Matt Lau]

Thanks, guys.

I'll have a soft spot for him (and Rob, too) for making the first *good* plane that I ever bought.