James Miland Leahy

After a more than a two-year battle with metastatic prostate cancer, James Miland Leahy, Jr., 72, of Littleton, Colorado died on Sunday, June 10, 2012 in Denver. Jim was born on September 8, 1939 in St. Cloud, Minnesota, the first child of Margaret M. and James M. Leahy. He was followed in birth by siblings Timothy, Molly and Lenora over the next six years. ""Mino"" and his siblings grew up in Maple Lake, Minnesota where he went to Maple Lake Elementary and High Schools, worked at his father's hardware store, his uncle Leo Weismann's grocery store and attended St. Timothy's Catholic Church. Among his best friends growing up were his cousin Denny Leahy and younger brother Tim who gave him his lifelong nickname of Mino. Jim always enjoyed telling stories of coming of age in a small and predominantly Irish Catholic town, surrounded by his extensive family. He loved to recount that his Leahy uncles were the town lawyer, dentist, and banker. As a young adult, he hunted duck with his father on early October mornings, something he dreamed about each winter for the rest of his life. He played clarinet in the high school marching band, which he encouraged his daughter in 25 years later. Jim was known as being a bit of a dreamer by his teachers, getting lost in The Hardy Boys during class. Another love was reading his father's newspapers, which he would sneak regularly and carefully refold. Following his high school graduation in 1957, Jim attended St. John's University in Collegeville, Minnesota where his great uncle Father Polycarp taught on the faculty. Before he died, Jim asked that his grandchildren visit the campus and strongly consider it for college; he was reading a copy of the St. John's Alumni news magazine just before his death. After his graduation in 1961, and following his father, he joined the U.S. Marine Corps, entering basic training at Quantico, Virginia where the world opened up to him. He would laughingly recall the grueling and humiliating regimen at Quantico telling stories of how he was one of the smallest in his unit, at 5'9"", to endure fifteen mile hikes carrying a 65 lb. pack (a story retold to his complaining daughters when hiking up to Tin Cup in the foothills of the Rockies without stopping for a drink of water). He served for seven years during the early years of the Vietnam War, returning to the Marine Corps Recruit Depot in San Diego, California before being stationed in Okinawa and Japan. Before that, he was part of the US blockade of Cuba in 1962, serving on board the Naval helicopter Iwo Jima. Jim met his wife Pat (Kennedy) of 45 years in Laguna Beach, California on St. Patrick's Day 1965, marrying in Tokyo on May 29, 1967, with a 4-month honeymoon in Japan. During early marriage, Jim worked towards a master's degree in physics at San Diego State. Following the birth of their daughters, Jim and Pat left their beloved California to pursue careers outside the Washington DC area. Between 1969-1978, Jim worked for the CIA in Langley, Virginia, as an analyst. He made lifelong friends while living in Reston, Virginia and Gaithersburg, Maryland. He enjoyed going to Washington DC monuments and museums, the beach at Cape May, New Jersey, visiting family in Minnesota and Indiana during summer vacations, and visiting his in-laws, the Mangravites in Pennsylvania over many holidays. In 1978, Jim accepted a job with Martin Marietta Corporation in Littleton, Colorado (where he worked with friends, Ed Friedman and Dave Nichols) and moved his family to Ken Caryl Ranch. Jim enjoyed driving to the mountains on weekends, eating Mexican food, playing tennis at the Ranch House, playing strategy games with his friend Tom McEwen, and taking family dogs and daughters for runs in the foothills near his home. Jim loved his home on Noddle Mountain, staying there as long as he could, for 34 years. In particular, he loved his backyard, facing a pond with ducks and geese, filling his birdfeeders and potting his geraniums. During the defense cutbacks of the 1990s, Jim and Pat were reunited with East Coast friends when he took assignments in Arlington, Virginia and Princeton, New Jersey before an early retirement at age 60. He took on his beloved role of Granddad that year, traveling quarterly to see his three grandchildren in Indiana over the next decade. In his retirement, he enjoyed blogging with AARP, following the stock market and the latest Apple technology, reading mysteries, playing poker ""at the boat"" in Indiana, doing Sudoku each morning with his coffee, and volunteering for the campaign of Barack Obama and other local Democrats. He enjoyed watching ""his girl"" Rachel on MSNBC and tuning into his weekly public affairs programs and Masterpiece Theater on PBS. Jim is survived by his wife Pat; daughters Suzanne Leahy and Kate Leahy-Hein; son-in-law Chris Hein; and grandchildren Analisa Suzanne, Caitlin Leahy and Daniel James Hein; brother Tim Leahy; and sisters, Molly Jacobs and Nora Eull. A visitation will be held Tuesday, June 19, 2012 from 9:00 A.M. to 11:00 A.M. followed by a joyous memorial of his life at Horan & McConaty Family Chapel, 5303 East County Line Road (one block west of South Holly Street) in Centennial, Colorado, at 11:00 A.M. Interment follows at 2:00 P.M., at Fort Logan National Cemetery - Pavilion 'A', 3698 South Sheridan Boulevard, in Denver, Colorado. If you would like to send a tribute in honor of Jim, flowers may be sent to Horan & McConaty; or we welcome memorial donations in Jim's name to the general scholarship fund at Saint John's University - Development Office, P. O. Box 7222, Collegeville, Minnesota 56321-7222. Please share your memories of James and condolences with his family by signing the guestbook.