Leedy, Roy Benton

Roy Benton Leedy (1883- 1981), American minister, was born February 13, 1883 in Richland County, Ohio, and spent much of his childhood in Fremont, Ohio. He graduated from Northwestern Academy (now North Central College), and from Evangelical Theological Seminary. He received his license to preach in 1907, and his full membership in 1913 in the Ohio Conference of the Evangelical Church. In 1912 he married Rose V. Voigt, and they bore three children. After his first wife's death, Leedy married Margaret Koepnick Faust in 1933. He began his ministry at Bettsville, and later served at Akron, Kenmore, Marion-Salem, Flat Rock, Cedar Hill, Gibsonburg, Huron, Carey, Napoleon, Perrysburg, Green Springs, and Warren- Grace. During his years of ministry, Leedy served as secretary of the General Historical Society of the Evangelical Church, and served for 35 years as historian of the Ohio Conference. After his retirement in 1951 he finished his book, The Evangelical Church in Ohio, which was published in 1959. He received an honorary Doctor of Divinity Degree from Baldwin- Wallace College in recognition of his work in collecting materials of and writing about the history of the Evangelical Church. Leedy died on January 2, 1981 at the Elyria Home in Elyria, Ohio, and is buried in Fremont, Ohio.