Honoring The Leshy Family – Peebles to Public Service
The Adams County Community Foundation is proud to share this tribute, Honoring the Leshy Family – Peebles to Public Service, and to recognize a family whose story reflects the very best of Adams County. From the humble beginnings of John and Dolores Leshy to the exceptional achievements of their children, their family’s journey shows the lasting power of education, perseverance, and dedication to community. Though their paths carried them far beyond Peebles, the values they gained here remained at the heart of their work. Through the John and Dolores Leshy Fund for Adams County, the Leshy family continues to support and strengthen our region, inspiring future generations to learn, serve, and lead with purpose.
Remembering John and Dolores Leshy of Peebles by John David “Cob” Leshy
John Leshy was born in Nuevo Laredo, Mexico in December 1913, the oldest child of Lebanese immigrant parents, Joseph and Mary Aboud El-Ashy. Joseph had emigrated to Mexico from Lebanon in 1906, then returned to Lebanon in 1911 and married Mary, and in 1913 they moved back to Mexico. The young family came to the United States in early 1914, shortly after John was born, and their name was Anglicized to Leshy. For the next three years John and Mary mostly lived in the state of Washington and around Salt Lake City, Utah, where Joseph earned a living as a migrant farm worker and in a brickyard. Joseph had some education and some facility with English as well as Arabic and other languages, but Mary knew almost no English. In 1917, the family moved to Wheeling, W.Va., where Joseph got a job in a steel mill. In 1918 they moved across the Ohio River onto a small farm they rented. Joseph continued to work in the steel mill part-time until around 1928, when he became a full-time farmer, still on rented land. Although very poor, Joseph and Mary instilled the virtues of education in their children, who included not only John but three younger siblings. They all spoke Arabic at home and learned English in the local elementary school.
John worked his way through Ohio State University in the Great Depression in the 1930s, where he was housed in the “Tower Club”—a barrack underneath the OSU football stadium the University created to house and feed indigent students at reduced rates. Working in Columbus after earning his bachelor’s degree, in 1940 he met and in 1941 married Dolores King, who was working as a clerk for the Ohio Bureau of Motor Vehicles. Born in 1921, Dolores had been raised in Winchester, the daughter of Earl and Kitty List King, both of whom had deep roots in southern Ohio.
In early 1942, the newlyweds John and Dolores moved to Adams County, where John joined his father-in-law’s builder’s supply business, becoming general manager of its Peebles store. He served in the U.S. Army in 1944-46, all stationed in the U.S. Upon his father-in-law Earl’s death in 1957, John became head of all four of the units of the business, known in Winchester and Seaman as the King Brothers Lumber Co., in Peebles as the Haas Lumber Co., and in West Union as the McHenry Supply Co. Until he passed on in 1999, John was very active in community affairs, including many years of service on the Peebles School Board, on the Peebles City Council, on the Board of The Farmers Bank, on the Adams County Draft Board, and on the Adams County Board of Elections.
He was also for many years Chair of the Adams County Democratic Party, where he had very limited success given that most of the County’s voters were then, like now, Republican. His long stewardship of the minority political party set a powerful example to his children, that politics did not have to be personally divisive. In fact, neither he nor Dolores ever regarded political differences as personal—Dolores’ family was Republican-leaning.
Despite having been strongly discouraged from attending college, Dolores was intellectually curious, an avid reader, a music lover and a devoted member of the Peebles Methodist Church choir, and very active in community organizations, especially libraries. She served for 34 years on the Board of the Peebles Free Public Library and later, on the Ohio Valley District Library Board. She passed on in 1987.
Remembering Mary Katherine “Kathy” Leshy Kelley (1942–2019) and Honoring John David “Cob” Leshy (b. 1944) of Peebles
Kathy was born in Winchester and raised in Peebles. From an early age, she demonstrated a boundless love of learning, and though her intellect and integrity took her far from the rolling hills of southern Ohio, her heart never strayed far from the region of her upbringing. She was valedictorian of the class of 1960 at Peebles High School, and went on to attend Ohio Wesleyan University, graduating Phi Beta Kappa and summa cum laude in 1964. While there, she gained national attention as a member of Ohio Wesleyan’s College Bowl team—a four-student group that defeated five universities in successive weeks on the popular television quiz show, retiring undefeated. Her quick mind, quiet confidence, and team spirit made her a campus legend and a source of much pride for her hometown.
She went on to earn a Master’s degree in Medical Science and conducted pioneering research in electron microscopy at Harvard University, and later earned a law degree with highest honors from George Washington University, completing her final year at Stanford Law School after relocating to California. She built a respected legal career in the Bay Area marked by ethical insight and a deep commitment to justice. She worked pro bono for a predecessor of the Silicon Valley Community
Foundation and served on the board of the YWCA of San José. There she oversaw the development of Villa Nueva, a landmark project providing housing and support for women and children in need. After moving to Southern California, she continued her civic engagement on the board of the Sierra Madre Community Foundation, bringing the same energy and thoughtfulness to community betterment that she showed throughout her life.
A scholar in the truest sense, Kathy’s interests spanned the sciences, humanities, and faith traditions, and she traveled widely across many countries. Friends remembered her as someone who could quote Shakespeare or discuss ancient civilizations with equal ease—and her intellect was matched by warmth, humility, and grace. Kathy passed away on January 20, 2019, at age 76, and rests in Locust Grove Cemetery, close to the family and community that shaped her early years.
Cob was also born in Winchester and raised in Peebles. He graduated from Peebles High School in 1962, where he helped lead the basketball team to two consecutive county championships. Benefiting from a geography-based version of affirmative action, in which Ivy League schools actively sought students from areas that had never sent anyone their way, he attended Harvard College. There he earned an A.B. degree cum laude in 1966 and then attended Harvard Law School where he graduated magna cum laude in 1969.
Cob then entered public service, becoming a trial attorney in the U.S. Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division, litigating school desegregation cases in the deep South and in Indianapolis, Indiana. In 1972 moved to California where he helped open the western office of the Natural Resources Defense Council, an early national environmental advocacy group. In 1977 he moved back to Washington D.C. to join the Carter Administration, serving as the Interior Department’s Associate Solicitor for Energy and Resources. In the fall of 1980, he became a law professor at Arizona State University College of Law.
In 1992, Cob moved back to Washington D.C., where he served for several months as special counsel to the Chair of the Resources Committee of the U.S. House of Representatives. Following Bill Clinton’s election as President, he led the transition team for the Department of the Interior, and in early 1993 the president nominated him to be Solicitor (General Counsel) of that Department, where he served till the end of the Administration in January 2001. That fall Cob became a professor at UC Hastings College of the Law (now UC Law San Francisco). He became emeritus professor in 2015 but continues to lecture, consult and write, including publishing Our Common Ground—A History of America’s Public Lands (Yale U. Press, 2022). His work on behalf of public lands was captured in a recent profile in the Harvard Law School Bulletin, https://hls.harvard.edu/today/lands-of-opportunity/. A complete list of his publications and other accomplishments can be found at https://www.uclawsf.edu/people/john-leshy/.
Kathy and Cob’s core values of integrity, hard work, and deep appreciation of the importance of education and civic participation were fostered by their parents. They were also nurtured by the close-knit community where they grew up—where everyone knew everyone else and, despite differences, learned early on the importance of humility and treating everyone with respect. Over the years, they have given back to the community of their childhood through the John and Dolores Leshy Fund for Adams County, which has long supported the Edge of Appalachia Preserve as well as other community activities. Their lives remind us how a lifetime of purpose and service can grow from relatively simple beginnings.
