Fonds 0342 - David Leonard fonds

David Leonard was born in Fairview in 1945 and raised in Sexsmith. His father and mother, Bill and Grace Leonard, came to the Peace country from Iowa in the early 1930s and resided in Hines Creek, Webster, and Whitelaw. After serving in the Second World War, Bill took land under the Veteran's Land Act and chose two quarters at Teepee Creek, east of Sexsmith. The couple made their home in Sexsmith and raised three children: Donna(Menzies), Ann(Leighton), and David. David was an active student, joining air cadets and playing baseball. He served as a community reporter for the Grande Prairie Herald Tribune. In 1964, he attended the University of Alberta and obtained a Bachelor of Arts Honors degree in 1968, and a Masters of Arts degree in 1969. After two years as an archivist at the Provincial Archives, David moved to England to begin PhD studies in Modern Irish History, receiving his doctorate in 1975. After returning to Canada, he worked as Assistant Archivist at the City of Edmonton, Territorial Archivist of the Northwest Territories and in 1981 became Head of Government Records at the Provincial Archives in Edmonton. In 1992, he published the first of several histories of the Peace country, "The Lure of the Peace", and in 1995, "Delayed Frontier: the Peace Country to 1909". In 1996, David transferred to the Alberta Historic Sites Service, assuming the role of Project Historian for Northern Alberta. In 2006 he published "The Last Great West: the Agricultural Settlement of the Peace Country to 1914."