Leigh Sewell

1940 - 2022

Leigh R. Sewell Jr., 81, of San Antonio, Texas, died on December 13, 2021.

He was born on Long Island, New York on April 4, 1940 to the late Leigh and Elizabeth Sewell. The family moved to Martinsville, Ohio, in 1943 and Leigh grew up there. For years he delivered the Wilmington News Journal in Martinsville with his faithful dog, Spot, by his side.

He graduated from Martinsville High School in 1958, and participated in the Randall work-study program at Wilmington College, graduating in 1962.

Leigh enlisted in the U.S. Army and spent three years in the service, two of them in Japan. He settled in California after his discharge, and worked for the U.S. Postal Service in San Francisco. He then earned a Masters degree in English Linguistics at San Francisco State University.

Leigh helped set up the "English as a Second Language" [ESL] program at the University of Houston, Texas. He also taught ESL in Humacao, Puerto Rico; Bogota, Columbia; and Dhahran, Riyadh, and Jiddah, Saudi Arabia. Later, he was with the Defense Language Institute at Lackland Air Force Base, San Antonio, teaching English to students from all over the world. While at Lackland, Leigh went twice to Afghanistan to work near Kabul. He retired in 2014.

He had studied the Russian language and was able to spend several summers in Russia and the Ukraine on his own. He loved reading, journaling, tennis, hiking at least five miles a day wherever he was, and most of all traveling in his minivan across the country to be with his family.

Leigh was a quiet, loving, unassuming man who liked to listen rather than talk, with many interests and a strong sense of adventure. We will miss him forever.

Surviving are his children Jennifer (Jim) Cowan of Columbus, Holly Sewell of Salt Lake City, Utah, and Patrick (Gina) Sewell of Ithaca, New York; grandchildren Drew, Ashley, and Ryan; and the mother of his children Karen Wollam of Phoenix, Arizona; sisters Fran (Harold) Oberlin of Wilmington, and Marilee (Bill) Baird of Centerville. He leaves nieces, nephews and cousins with one special cousin, Patricia Reed of Gaithersburg, Maryland, and one special childhood friend, Tom Custis of Martinsville.

The Reynolds-Smith Funeral Home, 327 North South Street in Wilmington, is serving the family. Visitation will be from noon to 1 p.m. on Saturday, January 15, with a funeral service to follow. The burial will be in the Martinsville I.O.O.F. Cemetery.