John Leech
From Onyx Wiki
Biography of John Leech written by Sue Swafford, His life long true friend and family away from home.
Early Days
John Leech was born in Richmond, Surrey, England 12/31/1934. He attended London School of Economics and was a member of the LSE Society in 1957-58, specializing in Law, but did not graduate.
In 1952 John was stage manager of “Worm’s Eye View” of the Richmond & Twickenham Arts Club. He played in Pirates of Penzance, thus explaining how he knows all the lyrics to Gilbert & Sullivan.
John spent some time in the Army Reserve, thus acquiring a field jacket, which he loved and wore all the time. Thus began the first inklings of his unusual choice of clothing.
He came to America to attend the University of Virginia, probably in the early 1950’s, but was not impressed with America and planned to return to England. But first he made a mad dash to see California, fell in love with it, and made a tire-screeching practically non-stop drive back to Washington, D.C., to renew his visa before it expired. Possibly that was not necessary, but John always loved drama.
John worked in Los Angeles as an insurance claims adjustor, sometimes hiding in trees to take pictures of supposedly disabled men carrying pianos out of their houses. John loved getting the best of a malingerer. He had also been a manager at a medical office. . He bought a property with 4 houses in Echo Park in 1963. He had had a roller coaster relationship with a beautiful black woman named Lemmy, and a more sedate relationship with a Jewish woman named Gloria. Gloria’s antique aunt was living in one of John’s houses, and Gloria and her husband became friends of John and Sue.
California
John and Sue met in 1973 while both were working for Bechtel Engineering in San Francisco. Their first social event was a walk across the Golden Gate Bridge. Sue was blown away by John’s erudition, his ability to converse on any topic, his strength of purpose and able to overlook the fact that he was a portly, goateed, balding older man. The Golden Gate Bridge day ended in Chinatown for the Chinese New Year’s parade, the year of the Tiger, featuring a real tiger in a wooden wheeled circus cage. His strength of purpose was matched by his strength of physique as he hoisted Sue up on a traffic light to see the parade better.
John owned a class A motorhome, which he called the Old Dog. He lived in his motorhome in a parking lot under a freeway ramp in downtown San Francisco. He kept his lights to a minimum, not wishing to attract unwanted attention. Often he and Sue would stroll over to the Hyatt Regency and sit in the lobby and read, maybe have a drink. John loved being frugal and getting around the high cost of housing.
About 3 weeks after they met, John and Sue were illegally camped in the Old Dog at Goat Rock State Park, right across the Russian River from Jenner. Seeing the cute little village with smoke curling up from the chimneys they agreed they would buy a retirement home in Jenner. A few weeks later, in the height of the gas crisis of 1973, they took off in John’s 240-Z to go house hunting. After wending their way through the country side looking at totally unsuitable property, they arrived at the little cabin in Jenner at sunset. They climbed up to take a look inside through a window when their future neighbor came up and asked them what they were doing. It’s already sold, he said, and when John asked him he told John how much he had offered. John insisted on blasting back to the realtor’s office and getting the offer in (+ $500 more) before she closed, and this saved the day as the realtor went to Sacramento to deliver the other offer the next day, Sunday.
One of the reasons for buying Jenner is that it provided plenty of opportunities for John to work on the house. John dug a huge hole through clay and rock for the fiber glass septic tank with a shovel and pickaxe. Sue helped, especially when it came to toting gravel from the top of the hill to the bottom with a wheelbarrow. But mainly Sue enjoyed the sun and tried to commune with nature and believe that snakes are part of the grand community.
Travelling
In 1974 Sue went to Mexico with her good friend Ro, travelling 3,400 miles mainly by bus. Sue returned, determined to live in Mexico, and got rid of her apartment and car. Sue and John moved most of her stuff to the basement of his house in LA. Living in Mexico didn’t work out, and Sue continued living in John’s LA house. One night in San Francisco Sue was reading and suddenly exclaimed “It is so incredible. The sun never set on the British Empire!” John’s response was “Why don’t we go there? It’s easy travelling as they all speak English there.” Thus was born a 6 month tour, hippie-style backpacking through Southeast Asia. Gloria managed John’s properties while they were gone. On the way back John wanted to buy a property and turn it into a youth hostel and live there, but Sue got a call to work in San Francisco, and John returned a month or two later.
The trip got off to a rocky start. After John and Sue spent a couple days moving all the stuff out of his house to rent it, they collapsed on a mattress on the floor, totally exhausted, every muscle stiff and sore. John woke Sue in the middle of the night. He was hopping around on one foot, screaming in agony. “Get up, Get up! I’ve got to go to the hospital. Oh well. You’re useless! I’ll go myself!” John loved taking care of things himself. He took off in his little Austin America, leaving Sue to wonder a bit and go back to sleep.
Come morning and no John. The phone had been cut off already, so Sue walked down to the pay phone to call the taxi company and cancel their ride. The dispatcher says “Are you the woman whose husband is in the xxx hospital?” She was, and took a taxi down there to see what was up. He had had a kidney stone, which passed itself. He checked himself out and they continued with the trip.
John had some sort of impulse left over from the Raj to travel on a long trip with a trunk. He and Sue bought a trunk and he reinforced it with some nice oak stays nailed to the sides. They had bought the cheapest tickets from LA thru Honolulu, Hong Kong, and Bangkok, to Singapore on Air Siam, which was no Thai Airways. The travel agent told them there were no seats available and to should see her friend at the Honolulu airport to get seats on to Hong Kong. A few days later there was a call saying a flight was going out the next day and to be on it. They found later that some people had been stranded 6 months waiting for a flight.
Check-in created a brou-ha-ha as the agent told John how much it would cost to take that trunk. Sue’s common sense finally prevailed and they both tore through the trunk, stuffing what they really needed into their suitcases. John always loved making a scene.
John and Sue ambled through Singapore, Indonesia, and Malaysia and all the countries to and from. There were no guide books, or at least not accurate ones. They hiked through rice paddy country up into banana farms, tea plantations, and finally a pine forest looking for the French Electric Company, which would supposedly rent them a Jeep. They were exhausted and cold and wondering if they’d have to sleep outside when they heard horrible gronking noises. New Zealand Colombo Geothermal Project! the sign said. Pertamina, the Indonesian development company. New Zealand or Pertamina?? Yeah, New Zealand! They knocked on the door and got a meal and a bed for the night, totally ruining Tony’s night alone while the others were away, and a ride back to town the next day.
John always loved tax write-offs. He spent considerable time looking for a source for solar heating panels. In preparation for this, his mathematician, Sue, had spent some time at the LA Library learning how to calculate the best angles and parabolas for a solar collector. In a small kampong in Malaysia, Pantai Kundor, near Malacca they rented an apartment from the Imam’s son-in-law. They bought some materials in Malacca and brought them back in a bus. Then they made a parabolic solar collector. Sue has a wonderful picture of a water buffalo sniffing at the strange contraption. John did eventually find a source in Hawaii, from a guy who got them from someone in Korea.
The Natoma Years
Bechtel was the last job John held. In Sonoma County John started a business selling and installing solar water heating systems. He travelled the county, cold-calling business people, mainly hotels and the like. He achieved some success, but it was too much trouble and not enough profit. He returned to San Francisco to drive a taxi and helped renovate Sue’s Victorian.
Fame spreads
To be continued
Retirement 1998
