Dr. Leigh Lawton Obituary (1944 - 2022)

Dr. Leigh Lawton, loving husband, father, grandfather “Big Papi,” brother, uncle, and friend, age 78, of Edina, MN, passed away on December 1, 2022. He is survived by his wife, Dr. Ellen J. Kennedy; daughters, Dr. Erin Lawton (Shawn Burnau), Ballwin, MO, and Anne Kaminsen (Mitchell), Edina, MN; stepson, Jonathan Kennedy, Bozeman, MT; stepdaughter, Louisa Kuljurgis (Philip), Rockville, MD; three grandchildren, Sean and Anna Kuljurgis and Jesse Kaminsen; and brother, Ronald Lawton (Audrey), Pound, WI. Preceded in death by parents Lucille and Burleigh Lawton. Leigh grew up in West Allis, Wisconsin. He attended Valparaiso University, Valparaiso, Indiana, graduating in 1966 as Valedictorian of the School of Business. He was a member of the university swim team, voted ‘most valuable’ in 1964, ’65, and ’66, and serving as team captain in 1966. He received a Ph.D. in marketing from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where he was a University Fellow in 1966-67 and a Vilas Fellow, 1970-71. He began his illustrious academic career at Minnesota State University – Mankato, where he taught for several years, followed by the University of Northern Iowa. In 1979 he joined the faculty at the University of St. Thomas, where he remained until his retirement in 2017, at which time he became an emeritus professor. He chaired several departments during his long tenure at St. Thomas and taught in various business disciplines. His particular passion was teaching statistics, which he continued to do as an adjunct professor in the MBA program through summer 2022. Leigh published widely in academic journals, spoke at national and international conferences, and received significant professional recognition for his research. Materials that he prepared for teaching statistics are used by faculty throughout the country, as is a business simulation with co-author and friend Dr. Philip Anderson. In 1970 he traveled to Brazil. This first trip out of the country led to a lifelong dedication to international exploration. In 1982 he led a group of undergraduate and masters-level business students to Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Japan. He subsequently taught internationally at Högskolan i Gävle in Gävle, Sweden in 1997, 1999, and 2000, and, with his wife, in 2003 on the international program Semester at Sea, a shipboard educational voyage that circumnavigates the globe. He and his wife team-taught in L’viv, Ukraine; Beijing, China; and Perth, Western Australia, as well as at St. Thomas. Together they traveled to more than 50 countries and shared the joys of scuba-diving on the Great Barrier Reef, snorkeling in Indonesia, hiking up Macchu Picchu, white-water rafting in New Zealand, and meeting with human rights activists in many places around the world, including in East Timor, Rwanda, and Papua New Guinea. Leigh was a consummate wordsmith and punster. He loved crossword puzzles, the Sunday New York Times Spelling Bee, and daily competition with his wife on the Isaac Asimov trivia quiz in the Star Tribune. He loved theater, and he and Ellen traveled to New York every year for a weekend of Broadway shows, museum visits, and sightseeing. He also was an inveterate reader, especially of the history of World War II in the Pacific. He enjoyed watching sports, particularly college wrestling. As a former college athlete, he remained active in many sports throughout his life, especially long-distance biking and cross-country skiing. In his last year, limited by the disease of multiple myeloma, he took up bird-watching. He was devoted to his family and to his close circle of friends. The family gives thanks to the wonderful physicians, nurses, and caregivers at the Mayo Clinic, especially Dr. Winston Gonsalves, the team in the Hematology Department, and the staff at Mayo Clinic Hospital, Methodist Campus, Station 72. Special thanks go to everyone at N.C. Little Hospice in Edina. Family and friends are invited to remember Leigh on December 11, 2022, at 1:00 pm CST at CONGREGATION SHIR TIKVAH, 1360 West Minnehaha Parkway, Minneapolis, MN 55419. Masks are required. The service will be streamed on Zoom. Email zoom2@hodroffepstein.com for the link. In lieu of flowers, memorials can be made in his honor and memory to World Without Genocide, 875 Summit Avenue, St. Paul, MN 55105, www.worldwithoutgenocide.org