Fowell, Leonard Richard

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FOWELL: Leonard Richard – 92, of Palos Verdes Estates, California, died on April 7th, 2021. He is survived by his four children: Richard Fowell, Joy Elaine Fowell, Loree Fields, Irene Fowell, and their spouses; his five grandchildren: Cheryl, Karen, Austin, Brandon, and Justin, his nephew Trevor, his brother-in-law Raymond Irwin, his nieces Lori, Joy, Janice, and Julie and his paternal first cousins Ernie, May, Gloria, Doreen and Murray. He was predeceased by his beloved wife of 60 years, Joy Marie Fowell, his parents, and his brothers Ralph and Bert Fowell. Leonard was born July 28, 1928 on a farm near Nesbitt, Manitoba, Canada to Verda Alma Fowell and Gordon Herbert Fowell. He attended a one-room schoolhouse on the farm property and later took correspondence courses in order to qualify for University. He attended the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg majoring in mathematics, physics, and chemistry. During the summer after his second year of university, he worked as a miner's helper, drilling and blasting ore and performing underground railroad maintenance at the Sherritt Gordon Mines in Sherridon, Manitoba. During subsequent summers, he attended the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) Officer Training and Flying Schools at Trenton and Centralia, Ontario. He was part of a group of students who passed a rigorous selection process to qualify for training directly in the Harvard aircraft, rather than starting in an elementary training airplane. This postwar air force program was designed to produce high quality pilots more quickly than the two-stage training program that was previously used. He graduated as a qualified pilot in 1949 and as a RCAF Flying Officer in 1950. He received his Ph.D. from the Institute of Aerophysics at the University of Toronto in Applied Mathematics and Aeronautical Engineering in 1955. Len and Joy then moved to Texas where he worked for the Convair Division of General Dynamics Corporation as a Senior Aerodynamics Engineer. In 1960, he moved to Palos Verdes Estates, California to join Northrop Corporation in Hawthorne, California and build a successful research and technology department as the Supervisor of the Research and Advanced Systems Branch. He remained at Northrop for the rest of his career with responsibilities that included Chief of the Propulsion and Aeroballistics Research Group (1962), Director - Research and Technologies (1963), Director, Hypervelocity Systems Section (1966), Director - Special Advanced Programs Section (1969), Director for the RF-5E Tigereye (1976), and Program Director for the F-5/T-38 Aircraft (1989). One of his early high-profile Northrop projects was the lifting-body program that developed the M2-F1/F2/F3 and HL-10. He was an Associate Fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics. Leonard worked diligently all his life and wanted his four children to work hard as well. One of the most common questions he posed to his children when they were growing up was "Shouldn't you be doing your homework?" When he was not working, which was rare, he enjoyed playing ping pong and tennis. In sharing his parents' love of music, he sang and played the piano, the Hawaiian guitar, and the ukulele. When his children were young, he took his family to visit the Manitoba relatives every other summer for six weeks; thereby ensuring that his children knew the members of their extended family. He served as his son's Boy Scout Cubmaster for two years. He participated in track in his youth and was an avid runner in his sixties, using the Palos Verdes High School track in the early mornings. Between 1972 and 2019, there were a series of male cats who, one by one, depended on him. Two of the cats were intentionally brought into the household, while the other three were cats who had been left behind when neighbors moved away. Leonard provided continuous stability for his family and could always be counted on. He wrote weekly letters to his parents. When his wife needed more assistance than could be provided at home, he visited her at the care home four days of every week. In the final years of his life, he was grateful to receive regular news from Canada due to phone calls from his cousin Ernie, his brother Bert, and from Blanche Miller, a long-time family friend. He maintained contact with his former Northrop co-worker Jim Franks and his wife Ruth. He was an important role model in his grandchildren's lives and earned the "World's Greatest Grandpa" hat which he would frequently wear. His children thank the caretakers from A Place at Home who allowed him to remain at home when his physical condition weakened, with a special thank you to his caretaker Sean for regularly taking him outside during his last year so he could enjoy the breeze from the ocean.

As published in Brandon Sun on Aug 27, 2021