William Leckenby, Ex-Legislator, Steel-Firm Owner, Philanthropist

William S. Leckenby, a former state legislator and steel-firm executive, has died after a yearlong illness. He was 83.

A one-time socialist who changed his views during the Depression, Mr. Leckenby became a Republican and served five terms as a state representative from West Seattle from the late 1960s to the late '70s.

Former Gov. Dan Evans praised him Wednesday as an uncommon politician from a bygone era, when the Legislature met less frequently and lawmakers with proven business backgrounds like Mr. Leckenby were rare.

"He had that rare combination of extraordinarily wise business experience coupled with an unusual concern and empathy for people who were in trouble," Evans recalled.

Evans noted Mr. Leckenby had been opposed to Initiatives 601 and 602, the spending-limitation and tax-rollback measures on last month's ballot.

Mr. Leckenby was not so constrained by party loyalty that he wouldn't support "good people on the other side where the choice is pretty clear," Evans recalled. "He was much like I was on issues and concerns that don't seem to fit with today's version of the Republican Party."

Former Congressman Rod Chandler, who roomed with Mr. Leckenby when the two served together in Olympia, recalled him as a second father.

"One of his philosophies was that we always ought to look not for the differences between people but for the common interest," Chandler recounted.

Mr. Leckenby, who died Tuesday, was born and grew up in Seattle. He graduated from West Seattle High School and briefly attended the University of Washington, according to one of his sons, Larry Leckenby of Seattle.

The son said his father supported a socialist for president in 1932, "but his taste in politics shifted to the Republican side later in the Depression."

In 1943 his father established Leckenby Structural Steel Co. in a small warehouse on Utah Street, south of where the Kingdome now stands. Later the plant moved to Harbor Island.

The business prospered, employing hundreds by the 1960s and '70s, the son said. The elder Mr. Leckenby quit managing the company in 1963 and made a "midlife shift" toward social service and politics.

Chandler recalled him as "truly a selfless individual" who worked quietly behind the scenes to help the less fortunate.

"One of the things he's not well known for is the philanthropy," Chandler said. Mr. Leckenby, he noted, was one of the founding directors of the First Avenue Service Center.

Mr. Leckenby was also active in civic causes and helped push Forward Thrust, Seattle's big bond issue that got rolling in the 1960s, to deal with civic improvements for parks and sewage, among other things.

He was a longtime member of the Fauntleroy Community Church and the Fauntleroy YMCA. In recent years he was an active member of Plymouth Congregational Church. He also had strong ties with the Seattle Rotary and was the founder of the Northwest chapter of the Young Presidents Association, a group of young chief executives.

After his first wife died, Mr. Leckenby remarried in 1978. With his second wife, Betty, he lived in Seattle and on Bainbridge Island. He was especially fond of sailing.

"It was his love and passion," recalled a stepdaughter, Susan Yarrow Morris of Bainbridge.

In addition to his son Larry and stepdaughter Susan, Mr. Leckenby is survived by his son Edward Leckenby of Oakville, Grays Harbor County; daughter Mary Patton of Rural Retreat, Va.; stepdaughters Nancy Cope of Friday Harbor, San Juan County, and Jeani Holzman of Simi Valley, Calif.; and stepson, Peter Yarrow of Halfway, Ore.

Funeral services will be held at 1 p.m. Tuesday at Plymouth Congregational Church. Remembrances are suggested to the First Avenue Service Center, the Menninger Foundation and to the Plymouth Housing Group, a program for the homeless.