- Date Of Birth: November 8, 1933
- Date Of Death: October 6, 2016
- State: Georgia
Leonard Fant, 82, of Ringgold passed away Thursday, October 6, 2016. Born November 8, 1933 in a one-room house, he was a teenager when he left fields of cotton in Hope Arkansas, for the field of medicine, becoming Catoosa County’s “Man From Hope”. Leonard graduated Red Bank High School and the University of Chattanooga (UTC). While he did not leave that Arkansas town to become leader of the free world, Leonard Fant’s legacy as a leader and humanitarian seems boundless. He never forgot his early childhood in Hope and often bragged to his fellow Kiwanians, after joining the club in 1957, about the large size of watermelons grown there. To prove his point, Leonard and a fellow Kiwanian rented a truck, drove to Hope and returned with a load of “huge” melons.
Leonard worked for nearly 10 years in the lab at Campbell Clinic at night while attending the University of Chattanooga by day and working at Erlanger and Children’s hospitals between classes. He moved to Barnhardt Circle in 1953, and in addition to his other jobs and schooling, worked nights at the newly opened Tri-County Hospital from its opening day. While serving as chief med tech at both Children’s and Erlanger, Leonard enrolled in graduate school at Georgia State University. That undertaking required commuting three nights a week to Atlanta after his workday was done. Two and a half years and 63,000 miles later, he received his MBA.
While working in the medical field and attending college, Leonard found time for yet another pursuit. He served 4 years on the city council and three terms as Fort Oglethorpe’s mayor and city judge.
Leonard was CEO at Erlanger when in 1982 he was offered and accepted the same position at Tri-County Hospital. “My first week at Tri-County, the chief financial officer came to tell me that we didn’t have money to make payroll,” he said. “We had doctors, we had business, but we had no money.” A call to Robert McGuff, president of Chattanooga-based Blue Cross Blue Shield of Tennessee, secured a loan to make that first payroll and steady the hospital. He was at the helm when the hospital was renamed Hutcheson and underwent a $20 million expansion and renovation plan that included a new surgery department and intensive care unit.
Leaving Hutcheson in 1991, Leonard spent three years raising funds for Asbury Place, a retirement center in Tiftonia, before leaving to head North Park Hospital in Hixson.
Leonard was again without a job, but while driving home he received a call from John Germ asking if he would consider coming to Blood Assurance, an organization the two helped form in 1972. That call led to a decade of Leonard’s returning to his roots as a medical lab technician, only this time as an administrator.
Throughout his career, Leonard was involved in a myriad of fundraising efforts for causes that have benefited from his efforts and expertise while serving as chair of many charitable and non-profit organizations, such as United Way of Greater Chattanooga, Chattanooga State Community College Foundation’s Dinner of Firsts, Salvation Army, Urban League of Greater Chattanooga, and Friends of the Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park. He also served on the boards of the Chattanooga Area Chamber of Commerce and the Better Business Bureau of Greater Chattanooga.
Leonard served as president of the Rossville Chamber of Commerce, Catoosa County Chamber of Commerce, and Fort Oglethorpe Chamber of Commerce. He was founder/chairman of the Hutcheson Health Foundation, Walker County Gala, and the American Heart Association’s Heart Gala. An avid golfer himself, Leonard founded the Rick Honeycutt Youth Benefit Golf Tournament. A member of UC’s Kappa Signa, he was instrumental in raising money to rebuild the fraternity house after it was destroyed by fire.
Survivors are his loving wife of 60 years, Bobbie; daughter, Lynn Fant-Burke (Larry Burke); son, Britt (Ruth) Fant; daughter, Drenda (Mike) Paulson; grandchildren, Garrett Fant, Colbie Fant, Lindsey Paulson McDaniel, Travis McDaniel, Matt Paulson and Kelly Paulson; great-granddaughter, Jordyn McDaniel; sister, Betty Jo Bryant, of Australia; and many nieces and nephews.
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