He was born on June 5, 1895 at 9 Balmforth Avenue in Danbury, the son of John and Anna Kohler Leahy. After graduation he became a wage-earner to help support his family by delivering the paper for the Danbury News. He earned a grand total of $4.25 a week when he became a machinist-assistant for Mallory hats at 15. With those wages he bought a lathe and started producing piston rings at the Leahy Machine Shop on Crosby St. in 1919.

In 1928, he started the Leahy Fuel Oil Company at the rear of 313 Main Street with the precognition that coal heat would soon become a thing of the past. The business flourished due to the fact that Leahy would deliver in inclement weather when other companies would not. Later, it included a fuel oil distributing firm, a metered LP service, a gas station, and an appliance store, after it moved to White Street in 1930 where it remains today. He maintained his own dock terminal in Norwalk where oil is delivered by tanker.

In 1935, Leahy married an English teacher at Danbury High school, Gladys Stetson. Gladys, recalling in 1972, said in 1942 a woman settled her overdue fuel bill ($250.) by giving Leahy her shares in the Danbury Agricultural Society. This was the beginning of a boyhood dream come true. He acquired more shares during World War II--stockholders were uncertain how long the war would last, and they were losing annual dividends because the fair was postponed. By 1945, he owned the controlling interest in the fair. Respectfully, he insisted G. Mortimer Rundle keep the title of president. The Rundles had been involved since the fair's inception. He held Mr. Rundle and his father, Samuel in the highest regard.

MY FAIR LEAHY

With the help of the experienced veteran of the fair, C. Irving Jarvis, Leahy was able to bring the fair back in 1946. But the times had changed. The best racehorses were competing in parimutuels. The number of farms was dwindling. Danbury had become a commercial factory town. Still Leahy wanted, most of all, for the fair to show agricultural progress through farm products, and then, to educate, instruct, and entertain. Mr. Leahy was against "anything offensive to the child's mind." Danbury's Walt Disney would put emphasis on "family entertainment" and "clean fun."

He began renovating buildings and the midways. Hard surface Colprovia walks and drives replaced dirt roadways. Steel link fences were installed along with a new lighting system. The coin boxes were removed from the rest rooms and the fee for parking was eliminated. He planted flowers and supplied sufficient waste disposal equipment to make the Danbury Fair "the most beautiful fairground in the East." For race fans he added glass to the rear section of the grandstand for protection on cold nights. Also, for drivers and crew he refurbished the pit area. The fifth-of-a-mile dirt track was paved over.

He expanded the length of the fair from six days to nine to give an allowance for rainy days, and to take advantage of another weekend's attendance. An additional day, Monday, was added in 1970. Fulfilling his lifelong dream to run a circus, he featured Big Top attractions in front of the grandstand and in the daily parade. He would lead the parade himself, garbed in ringmaster's apparel of top hat, tails, white pants, and black boots.

P. T. BARNUM'S SUCCESSOR

He had such pride in what he had accomplished at the fair, that he actually had an aversion to free passes. He said his fair was worth the price of admission (considered high in comparison to others) and that he would gladly pay his own way into one of the exhibits. Probably one of the most expensive displays was the life-sized electrically-operated model of Jumbo (c. 1951.) The giant elephant was an attraction of P. T. Barnum's (an idol) that cost Leahy $3000. "As a boy I had three ambitions," Leahy said, "to own a pair of white swans, a new car with white-walled tires, and to make money." In a 1951 newspaper article, he was described as "a millionaire oil distributor whose full-time hobby happens to be running the fair as its landlord and sole owner."

His fair was considered a one-man operation and it was run without state subsidy. Apparently the fair and running a fuel oil business wasn't enough to keep Leahy busy. In 1950, he used the fairgrounds to stage a summer theater. He revived musical comedies and operettas like "Rose Marie" and "The Student Prince."

- CIVIC-MINDED LEAHY -

John Leahy was a trustee and a contributor to the Danbury Hospital building fund. He established the John W. Leahy Foundation in 1963 to provide future funds for worthy causes. In addition to being a parish trustee, Leahy was one of the first members of St. Joseph's Church. He was made a Knight of St. Gregory in 1965 by Pope Paul VI for outstanding service to his church. He was presented with the Outstanding Interest Award of the Disabled American Veterans, certificates from the U.S. Army and the Veterans of Foreign Wars, and citations from various civic organizations, including The News-Times Civic Achievement Award in 1963.

Leahy was chairman of the advisory board of the Connecticut National Bank in Bridgeport, honorary director of the Danbury branch of that institution and a director of the International Association of Fairs and Expositions. Also, he was a member of the BPOE Elks, the Ridgewood Country Club, Knights of Columbus, the New York Zoological Society and the Danbury Scott-Fanton Museum, among other organizations. He died on March 28, 1975 at the Glen Hill Convalescent Home at the age of 79. His funeral procession went past the fairgrounds on its way to St. Peter's Cemetery.