Richard Leslie was good with his hands and got started in business by repairing typewriters.

But even before that, he was handy with his thumb.

After Leslie graduated from Ypsilanti High School in 1936, he enrolled at Michigan State University. His foster brother, Jack Snedeker, still remembers how the family piled into the car at their farm near Dixboro and drove north on Old US-23 until they reached Grand River Avenue in Brighton.

Richard Leslie

Dressed in a Boy Scout uniform and broad-brimmed hat, Leslie exited the car and held out his thumb. His parents, Clinton and Mary Leslie, and the other family members sat and waited until they finally saw another car stop and take their son toward East Lansing. Then they turned around and headed back to Dixboro.

Leslie, who died Saturday at the age of 92, had a long career in the office supply business.

“For a generation, beginning in 1946, his name was synonymous with typewriter and office machine sales and service in the Ann Arbor area,” his son Dale said in a prepared statement.

Snedeker said Leslie learned to fix typewriters while serving in the U.S. Army during World War II. He was stationed at Fort William Davis in the Panama Canal Zone.

Before the draft board called Leslie into the service in 1943, Snedeker recalled, lunch hours at the farm were spent listening to “Our Gal Sunday,” a radio soap opera. “You can get hooked on those things,” he said.

Three years before entering the Army, Leslie married Grace Lucretia Patrick in a ceremony performed at Greenfield Village. Returning from service in 1946, he repaired and sold equipment at Thrasher and Company, an office supply store. 

He then moved to Mayer-Schairer before he and Grace started Leslie Office Equipment in 1961. Later known as Leslie Office Supply, the business flourished until its 1997 sale to a national office supply retailing group.

The Leslies’ first son, Patrick Dennis, lived only a few days after his birth in 1947. Their second, Dale Richard, is an Ann Arbor resident and father of the Leslies’ two grandchildren. Grace Leslie died in 1998.

Richard Dale Leslie was born Aug. 21, 1917, in Superior Township and grew up in the Dixboro United Methodist Church, where Ingrid Sheldon observed his committed approach to life. 

“He was a strong part of this country church,” said Sheldon, also a member of the church. “He was faithful and loving. He doted on his wife and was proud of (son) Dale’s service.”

A strong record of community service will be an important part of Leslie’s own legacy. This year, he received the Kiwanis International Legion of Honor Award for his 50-year membership in the organization. He was a founding member of the Kiwanis Club of Ann Arbor Western in 1959.

In 2008, he received an award for humanitarian service from the Glacier Hills Retirement Community, where he lived the last 17 years of his life.

“When I was thinking about my dad, I don’t remember ever hearing him swear,” Dale Leslie said. “My dad had a lot of friends, but he never had to make any. He never had to try to impress somebody to gain their friendship.

A memorial for Leslie will be held Sunday, Oct. 18, at Westminster Presbyterian Church, 1500 Scio Church Road.

Ronald Ahrens is a freelance writer for AnnArbor.com. Reach the news desk at news@annarbor.com or 734-623-2530.