Levs “Leo” Reinhauzens, 91, longtime resident of Guilford, died on March 9 at the Hearth at Tuxis Pond in Madison, Connecticut. Born on September 25, 1923 in Riga, Latvia, he was the son of Leonide and Anastasija Reinhauzens.
As a young man Leo hoped to someday be a medical doctor. He studied ballet at the Fokina School of Ballet in Riga and could speak Russian and German and was a member of the Latvian Orthodox Church. Leo and his family lived through the Soviet annexation of their homeland in the summer of 1940 and survived the occupation of Latvia by the Nazis from 1941-1944. When the Germans fled the approaching Soviet Army, he and his mother and brother Eugene were taken by the Germans to work in labor camps in Germany. In the years right after the war they lived in an American refugee camp in West Germany. Between his duties at the refugee camp he taught ballet to the children there and even attended medical school in Wurzburg University. Finally, with the sponsorship of their friend Constantine Hramov --- later a Professor of Russian at Yale University --- they immigrated to the United States in June 1949, settling in New Haven, Connecticut.
After holding various short-term jobs in his new country and learning English, Leo was employed as an exhibition dancer and instructor at the Arthur Murray Dance Studio in New Haven. It was there he met his future wife Margery R. (Marty) Schwarz, to whom he was married for fifty-seven years, until her death in 2010.
Leo and Marty moved to Moose Hill Road in Guilford in 1957 where they raised their three children. Leo’s career with Sargent Company in New Haven had begun two years earlier, in February 1955. He had been studying engineering at night school and was employed at Sargents as a design engineer in general architectural hardware, specializing in mechanical engineering for commercial grade locksets and exit devices. He retired in 1995 after forty years of faithful service.
In 1963 Leo joined Marty in the Chester Fife & Drum Corps of Chester, Connecticut, and became the drum major for the corps. For many summers the family enjoyed attending musters and traveling to parades throughout New England and abroad. His daughter Marina later joined the corps, marching behind him on snare drum until 1993. Leo loved his time with the drum corps and it was easy to see he was proud to lead the corps down parade routes and onto the muster fields.
Leo enjoyed doing things with his family, working around the home and taking care of the animals during the years he and Marty had horses, burros and sheep. Like many of us, in later years he looked forward to watching “Dancing with the Stars” and “Jeopardy” on television. He was a kind and gentle spirit and always a real gentleman in his dealings with others. Leo will be greatly missed by his family and friends.
Leo is survived by his son Michael Reinhauzens of Guilford, his daughter Marina Cordeau and her fiancé Paul Berzinis of Hamden, and his stepson Thomas Medearis and his wife Meredith of Frostburg, Maryland. He is also survived by three grandchildren: Scott Medearis and his wife Katie of Livermore, California; Lesley Felton and her husband Jon of Frostburg, Maryland; and David Medearis and his wife Johanna of Springfield, Ohio; and two great-grandchildren, Emory Medearis and Michael Felton. He was predeceased by his great-grandson, Ezra Felton.
Family and friends are invited to a graveside ceremony on Saturday, May 9 at 11am at Leete’s Island Cemetery on Moose Hill Road in Guilford. The Guilford Funeral Home, 115 Church Street, Guilford CT is in charge of arrangements. To see photos of Leo, share a memory or leave a message of condolence for the family, please visit:
www.GuilfordFuneralHome.com. In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made to the Company of Fifers and Drummers, P. O. Box 277, Ivoryton, CT 06442. Proceeds will help fund the Junior Fife and Drum Camp. For more information go to
http://jrfife-drumcamp.org/.
Published by New Haven Register from Mar. 17 to Mar. 18, 2015.