Thomas H. Leppert, age 86 years, passed away on Friday October 6, 2023. He was born February 4, 1937, in Butler County, PA to Clarence and Gertrude (Harbison) Leppert. He was one of five children, including sisters Louise and Anne, and brothers Richard and Clarence.
Tom graduated from Libbey High School on June 9, 1955.He enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps on November 2, 1955 and served 2 years. He was granted an Honorable Discharge on December 16, 1957.
Shortly after this, Tom entered the skilled trades through an apprenticeship at Toledo Pattern Works, where he received his journeyman’s card in wood and metal pattern making. He followed this up with a second journeyman’s card in tool and die making. Throughout his career he worked at many of the most highly-regarded shops in the Detroit, Michigan area, supporting the metal casting industry.
On April 29, 1961, Tom married Carol Schick at Augsburg Lutheran Church, Toledo, OH. They eventually settled in Temperance, MI where they raised their 3 children.
Tom started his own shop in 1970, Leppert Pattern and Machine Co., centering on patterns and investment casting dies of all types, which he continued to run for the following 30+ years. During these years, Tom also was very involved in the education of new apprentices. He began as an educator at Macomber trade school, in Toledo, for many years, and after Macomber closed, he taught at Whitmer CTC, Sylvania Northview Career Tech and Bedford High School Apprenticeship Training teaching blueprint reading and drafting.
He transitioned from working in the tool and die trade to teaching Machine Trades full-time in 1983 at Bedford High School, retiring in 2001.
Tom was a 54-year member of AA, mentoring many into sobriety. He was active in the Temperance, Blissfield and Petersburg, MI 12-Step Programs along with many groups in the Toledo area.
Many vacations and excursions took Tom with his family to Civil War battlefields up and down the East Coast including Antietam, in Sharpsburg, MD and Edisto Island, SC and several other battlefields in Virginia and Maryland where Tom would hunt for relics with his metal detector. He would take his collections and stories to local schools and talk with students of all ages about the Civil War as they were studying American History. He passed his love of history on to his children and grandchildren.
Tom and Carol were members of First Presbyterian Church in Erie, MI.
Tom is preceded in death by his wife, Carol, and son, Tom. He is survived by his son, Tim (Cheryl); daughter, Nancy (Mike) Kujda along with grandchildren, Moriah (Cole)Sims, Emma Leppert, and Meredith and Gabriel Kujda; sister, Anne Jenkins.
Visitation will be from 3:00 p.m. until 8:00 p.m. on Wednesday, October 11, 2023 in the Urbanski’s Bedford Funeral Chapel 8300 Lewis Ave. Temperance, MI where the funeral service will be held at 11:00 a.m. on Thursday, October 12, 2023. Burial will follow in Toledo Memorial Park, Sylvania, OH.
The family would like to express our heartfelt thanks to the many caregivers at Parkcliffe Memory Care Community and the entire staff at Promedica Hospice of Sylvania.
