Milton Reese LeRoy

LeROY, Milton Reese, 87, passed away at home in Bridgewater Retirement Community on September 16, 2010. Born November 7, 1922, in McCormick, S.C., Milton grew up in upper South Carolina. He graduated from Clemson College, where he was a member of Blue Key Honor Society, Tiger Brotherhood, president of YMCA and Cadet Captain. He enlisted in the U.S. Army in July of 1943 and served with Tank Destroyers and the 47th Infantry Regiment of the Ninth Division in Germany, where he was a Battalion Adjutant and a rifle company commander. Milton graduated from Virginia Theological Seminary in 1950 and earned his STM from Seabury-Western Seminary. He served as a priest in the Episcopal Church as a missionary to Cuba, where he was in charge of several missions and later was Professor of Pastoral Theology and Christian Education at the Matanzas Theological Seminary. He returned to the U.S. in 1961 and was employed by the Episcopal Church as Executive Secretary of Overseas Education. From 1963-66, he taught at St. Margaret's House in Berkeley, California. He came to Virginia in 1966 and was employed by the Diocese of Virginia in staff positions and finally as Archdeacon before he retired in 1985. Thereafter, he and his wife, Jean, directed a private retreat center at Welling Hall until 1990, when they developed an intentional community with nine families living at the Cliffs in Doswell, Va. Milton is survived by Jean Leonard, his wife of 64 years; as well as two sons, Leonard and Phillip; a daughter, Jenanne Eppard; seven grandchildren and five great-grandchildren. A memorial service will be held at the Lantz Chapel in Bridgewater Retirement Community, 302 Second Street, Bridgewater, Va., on Saturday, September 25, at 2 p.m. Memorial gifts may be made to Bridgewater Healthcare Foundation, 302 Second Street, Bridgewater, Va. 22812, or Harrisonburg-Rockingham Free Clinic, 25 W. Water St., Harrisonburg, Va. 22801.


This obituary was originally published in the Richmond Times-Dispatch.