LESLIE COMBS SR DIES; Pioneer City Business Leader

Leslie I. Combs Sr., pioneer builder/businessman prominent in Gary civic affairs for 50 years, died shortly after 5 this morning in Methodist Hospital. He was 81. The funeral will be at 2 pm tomorrow at the Williams and Burns Chapel.

Combs came to Gary in 1908, two years after the city was founded. He entered the home building business in 1917 with Joseph Verplank, organizing the firm that became L.I. Combs & Sons, Inc. In the 42 years since its organization, the firm has put up numerous homes, apartment, commercial buildings and other structures, including the multi-million dollar Village Shopping Center at 35th and Grant. In the residential field, the firm built more than 2,000 homes, first on the West Side and later in other areas as the city grew. Combs snubbed retirement and remained active in the firm until his final illness. He was in the hospital for several months as his health declined, and he fell into a coma yesterday. He died at 5:15 a.m. Combs combined a successful career with a leading role in civic activities, going back to 1918 when he headed Gary's Liberty Bond drive.

He served on the Gary School Board from 1926 to 1935, including a year as president. William A. Wirt was then superintendent of schools.

Combs was a member of the city plan commission four years, and served on the Salvation Army advisory board for more than 30 years, playing a leading role in the establishment of a youth center and chapel at Ted's Trailer Town.

As a member of the Gary Historical Society, he took, charge of reconstructing and moving the society's museum headquarters to its present location on 4th Avenue off Massachusetts.

Combs was a member and former officer of the Gary Chamber of Commerce and a member of Gary Real Estate Board, Rotary Club and City Methodist Church.

He received his 50-year Masonic pin in 1956, and was a member of Gary Lodge 677, the Fort Wayne Consistory and the Orak Shrine of Hammond.

Combs and his wife, Ella, both native Vermonters, became adopted Hoosiers after their marriage in 1903. They first settled in Cayuga, Indiana, where Combs manufactured building brick. It was his Cayuga business that introduced Combs to Gary. Much of that business was the supplying of bricks to the newborn city of steel. His bricks went into many commerical, hospital, and steel company buildings that are now historic marks. His move from Cayuga to Gary was made to further this business. Combs opened a brick supply firm when he came to Gary in 1908, and the firm sold the bricks that went into many of the Steel City's first permanent homes on the West Side.

When the construction business sagged in the depression of 1914, Combs acquired an interest in Harrington's Grocery at 25 W 6th Avenue, and remained with the business until he returned to the construction field in 1917.

His construction-realty firm expanded, and Combs was joined in business by his son, Allen, in 1927, and Leslie Jr., in 1940. Management of the firm now passes to them.

Other survivors are the widow, Ella; a daughter, Mrs. Mary Davis of Gary, eight grandchildren and seven great grandchildren. A brother, Harold, who also lived in Gary, died some years ago. Three pastors, the Rev John Ward of City Church, the Rev James Bennett of Ambridge Methodist Church, and the Rev Clyde Lininger, Methodist Hospital chaplain, will officiate at the funeral tomorrow.

Pallbearers will be Orville Tittle, Ross Bain, Robert G. Jones, Jack Gilroy Jr., Charles Atkins Jr., and William Ridgely. Burial will be in Ridgelawn Cemetery. There will be a Masonic service at the funeral home at 7:30 tonight.