Charles Leonard, 92, Olympic Shooter
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Army Major General Charles Frederick Leonard Jr., who set an Olympic Games pistol shooting record that stood for more than four decades, died February 18 at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C. He was 92.
Born into a military family at Fort Snelling, Minn., Leonard was one year out of West Point when he won the silver medal in the pentathlon in 1936 in Berlin with the first perfect score in the modern history of the Olympic Games in the pistol section of the competition, which also includes fencing, swimming, running, and horseback riding.
The feat was unequaled at the Olympics until George Horvath of Sweden shot a perfect score at the Games in 1980.
Leonard later served in the infantry, taught at West Point during World War II, and commanded two outfits in Korea and one that was stationed on the border between East and West Germany.
He held the intelligence post in 1964-65, then took command of the 10th U.S. Army Corps at Fort Lawton in Seattle and retired from the military when that unit was disbanded in 1967.
