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Area pastor set to retire after a long career

Star Beacon - 8/5/2019

Aug. 5--HARTSGROVE TOWNSHIP -- Reverend Robert Leonard is set to retire next Sunday, after 15 years at Hartsgrove Community Church.

Leonard, an Air Force veteran who fought in the Korean War, served as pastor in Hartsgrove for 15 years, and for another 34 at the Hungarian Evangelical Reformed Church in Conneaut before that.

"It's going to be hard to lose Bob as my mentor every week," Robin Stanley, who will be taking over for Leonard, said. Stanley was installed at the church last year, she said.

Leonard always wanted to be a preacher, he said. "I love the Lord, and I want to work for him," Leonard said. "I always wanted to be a minister, for as long as I can remember," he said later.

"When I was going to Sunday school, for the first six years I was there, they gave me a prayer book for perfect attendance and perfect behavior," he added. "I'm sure there's a lot of people who won't believe that last part," he added with a laugh.

Leonard left the Air Force in 1953, and was a lay pastor in Jefferson for four years. "I've had a lot of things happen in my life to keep me on that path," Leonard said. "It's just always something my life has been heading toward, it got taken off on a few detours with the service, and with working and raising a family. And then things just happen and you decide that it's time to get back on track," he added.

After the Air Force, while working full time, Leonard performed services at a number of retirement homes. "My wife (Gloria) and I started, when I was ordained, we started an outreach program in the nursing homes. We used to do seven nursing homes out here in Ashtabula, in the area. ... And I was also working at Reactive (Metals), then Millennium down here, doing seven day weeks, working for them. ... We were busy," Leonard said.

Leonard has been hosting services at the Villa on the Lake for over 30 years, he said.

"I'm long term," Leonard said. "My wife and I have lived in this house since '53. I've been married to her for 70 (years)."

"I've always worked a full-time job, and (done) pastoring, and raised my two kids," Leonard said.

"In the last two years, I've retired five times," Leonard said. "I always look at retirement as temporary positions," he added.

Leonard has officiated more than 120 weddings.

"I look back at my life and I think about the people's lives I have become entangled in. I've done 135 weddings. It's just been a fantastic trip in life, with my wife and family, and the things that have all worked out for me," Leonard said.

Leonard will be Pastor Emeritus after his retirement, Stanley said.

"Every one of his sermons is still as powerful as they once were," Stanley said. "He's still a servant of God, reaching out to the children of God," she added.

"I told my wife one day, 'just look at our life.' At the time when I was getting out of the service, I was contemplating staying in, and I said "if we'd stayed in the service, we never would've been back here. And think of all the lives that we have effected, or added a positive note, that never happened.' That's been my life. I have a philosophy in life. There are only two kinds of days to have: Good days and better ones," Leonard said.

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(c)2019 the Star Beacon (Ashtabula, Ohio)

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