Milton L. Leebaw, 1929-2025

Milt was a beloved husband, father, grandfather, great-grandfather, brother and uncle. He and his wife, Sonya Slate Leebaw, had a loving 73-year marriage.

Born in Youngstown, Milt had an early fascination with newspapers. He began as a paperboy for the Youngstown Vindicator. At 14, with a mimeograph machine, he created and sold his own newspaper, a weekly review of world and national news called The Youngstown Early Riser.

At 20, without means to continue his studies at Miami of Ohio University, he left for New York City to pursue becoming a journalist. He secured a job as a copy boy for the Herald Tribune, where a veteran editor took Milt under his wing. Milt suddenly was writing headlines for world and national stories on page one. He left the Tribune in 1961 to be an editor and writer at the Sunday Week in Review section of The New York Times. At 31, he had come full circle, given his early interest in weekly news reviews. At the Week in Review, he worked with talented colleagues who produced stories that went beyond what readers found in the daily paper. Later in his career he was an editor for the daily Biz Day section.

In retirement, he remained an avid Times reader. Milt was a role model for principled and moral behavior. He loved history (especially the Civil War), politics and his Cleveland sports teams in spite of their penchant for heartbreak. He was a food maven and hilariously often characterized the most recent thing he ate as “the best I ever had.”

Milt resumed his studies at NYU and earned a B.A. in history while working at The Tribune.

He is survived by his wife, Sonya; his son, Jeffrey (Barbara) Leebaw; his daughter, Janet (Dan) Miller; his grandchildren, Ross Leebaw, Genna (Joe) Clemente and Gary Miller; his great-grandchildren, Emma and Jack Clemente; and siblings Dr. Wayne (Ellen) Leebaw and Susan Meade.

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