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Subject: [CAYolo] James George LEATHERS (1918-2003) (obit.)
Date: 4 Sep 2003 11:16:25 -0600

This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list.

Surnames: LEATHERS, WORTH, ZANG, RHOADS
Classification: Obituary

Message Board URL:

http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/rw/JY.2ADE/2764

Message Board Post:

James George Leathers

Born in San Francisco on Sept. 4, 1918, James George Leathers died Sept. 1, 2003, with his wife Dorothy Worth Leathers and his family by his side in Woodland, his home and community for the last 53 years of his life. He was 84.

Raised in Marin County, he graduated from UC Davis in 1939, married Dorothy Worth on Feb. 15, 1940, and moved to Knights Landing to farm in Sutter Basin with his two brothers, Bill and Jack, and mother, Alma Zang Leathers, and begin their family.

He is survived by his wife of 63 years, Dorothy; five sons and one daughter, James G. Leathers Jr. and his wife Carol, Timothy J. Leathers and his wife Linda, Joan G. (Leathers) Rhoads and her husband Rick, Patrick D. Leathers and his wife Kathrine, Michael W. Leathers and his wife Cynthia, and Scott W. Leathers and his wife Donis; 20 grandchildren; and five great-grandchildren.

Leathers will be remembered for his love of family, his friends, his community and the passion for which he honored and respected all that he knew, served and shared life. At one point, he served on 22 separate boards of directors, commissions and committees, most of which he chaired at one time or another, a distinction that his wife credits to his "secretary" -- her.

They were a team that went on to even greater distinction when Jim "retired" from all his official activities and became Dorothy's "special assistant" during her 22 years of service on the Yuba Community College Board of Trustees, representing the Woodland district.

To fully list or quantify Leathers' volunteer and professional activities is simply impossible. A short list would include chairman of the Federal Land Bank Board in Yuba City for 40 years and the Western States District Federal Land Bank Board member for 10 years. He was the last surviving signatory to the articles of incorporation forming the Farmers Rice Cooperative in 1946, an organization he chaired and served as a board member for 20 years.

He was manager of the Sutter Basin Growers Cooperative and, for more than 35 years, farm adviser for Barber-Rowland Chemical Co. He also helped establish and chaired the California Rice Research Committee, invented the "Leathers method" of rice irrigation, so named by UC Davis, and was a leader of Operation Port Folio, representing agriculture and introducing the new Port of Sacramento on a 30-day trip in the 1960s to Western Europe.

Leathers also represented the agriculture community on the California Air Resources Board as an appointee of Gov. Jerry Brown from 1978 to 1983.

He was recognized for his many achievements in agriculture. He was named Ag Businessman of the Year by the Yolo County Chamber of Commerce in 1968, received the state of California Rice Industry Award and received a 50th anniversary Farm Credit Commemorative Medal for Outstanding Contribution to Agriculture and Community.

Leathers and his two brothers shared an early love of the Boy Scouts of America. All three became Eagle Scouts, as are all five of Jim's sons and three grandsons. He was Cubmaster of Troop 69 in Woodland for 12 years, Yolo County district chairman of the Boy Scouts, National Committeeman of the Boy Scouts of America, and chairman of the Special Gifts Finance Drive for the Yolo County Boy Scouts for 15 years. All of this scouting spirit helped Jim and his brothers build a cabin in the woods in 1936 that remains the family mountain getaway in sight of Mount Shasta.

Giving back to one's community was not just a slogan to Leathers. He chaired the capital campaign to raise funds to build Woodland Memorial Hospital, chaired the hospital foundation and served as a member of the hospital board for 20 years.

Sports were another area of commitment for Leathers. In 1964, as president of the Woodland Babe Ruth league, he ran the campaign to bring the Babe Ruth World Series to Woodland, which resulted in the development of Clark Field.

Leathers tended his own spiritual garden as well. He was a vestryman at St. Luke's Episcopal Church in Woodland, at 515 Second St., where a service for family and friends will be held Friday at 11 a.m., after which he will be laid to rest exactly where he always wanted to be: Knights Landing, so everyone can wave at him as they drive by on their way to their beloved community of family, friends and through the countryside where he expressed his ever present passion for farming.

A reception will follow.

Visitation and viewing for friends and family will take place Thursday from 5 to 7 p.m. at the Kraft Bros. Funeral Home, 175 Second St. in Woodland.

The Leathers family suggest that memorial donations be made to the donor's favorite community activity.

(Obituary from the "The Davis Enterprise," Thursday, September 4, 2003, (Yolo County, California). Submitted with the permission of the "The Davis Enterprise," 315 G Street, Davis, CA 95616, <http://www.davisenterprise.com/>;. Please note: I am not related to the family listed above, and I do not have any further information on this family.)

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