STUART W. LECK:

Stuart W. Leck, Sr., was born in Minneapolis on December 9, 1901. Stuart's father, James Leck, immigrated to Minnesota from Musquodoboit, Nova Scotia in 1882 and established a general contracting firm in Minneapolis known as James Leck Builder and Contractor. James married Jennie Mathews in 1889 and the couple had four children: Grace (1891), Ethel (1895), Stuart, and James A. (1903).

After graduating from Minneapolis Central High School (1919) Stuart completed one year at the engineering college of the University of Minnesota and went on to graduate (1923) from Harvard University with a baccalaureate degree in civil engineering. After graduation Stuart went to work for his father's construction firm. He was elected secretary of the company in 1925 and, after his father's death in 1928, he became company president, a position he held until 1969.

Leck was active in several civic, religious, and government organizations. He was a founding member and first president of the Good Government Group of Minneapolis (1941), the forerunner of the Citizens League, which he helped found in 1952. He was also a founder and first president of Citizens Organized for Responsible Government (C.O.R.G.) (1956).

Stuart married Mildred Clark in 1927. They had four children: Jean (1930), Stuart, Jr. (1933), Susan (1936), and Nancy (1941). Mildred Leck died in 1957. Stuart married Virginia Calhoun in 1958. Virginia died in 1989. Stuart W. Leck, Sr., died on October 23, 1995.

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The collection is composed of 14 sections, referred to by Leck as books, which contain correspondence, reminiscences, essays, lists, minutes, and photographs related to Leck's personal life, career, and family history. A table of contents notes the sequence in which sections are to be read; it is found at the beginning of the papers.

The "Leck History" (Book 1) provides a genealogical and historical record of the Leck family (1084-1984) including its Scottish ancestry and migration to Nova Scotia and Minnesota. A separate essay (Book 14) documents the life of Leck's mother Jennie.

Leck's personal reminiscences are included in two brief papers (Books 11 and 12) and in audio recordings entitled "Memories of Stuart W. Leck, Sr., 1901-1984." Book 2 consists of a list of the recordings' contents. Other topics related to Leck's personal life include his charitable giving and attitude towards taxes (Books 3 and 8), and his religious beliefs (Books 9 and 13).

Under Stuart Leck's leadership, the James Leck Company constructed several prominent buildings in Minneapolis including the University of Minnesota's football stadium, the Young-Quinlan Building, the Strutwear Knitting Company, and the Yeates Medical Arts Building. A bound volume containing photographic illustrations of these and other buildings constructed by the firm during the first half of Leck's career (1925-1948) is contained in Book 4. A description of the company's operation during the depression (1929-1937) is given in Book 10.

As founding member and leader of the Good Government Group (1942-1951), the Citizens League (1952-1954, 1994), and Citizens Organized for Responsible Government (1956-1963), Leck documented the history of the three groups in a collection of records and reminiscences he entitled "Minnesota Business Men Influence Government" (Books 5-7).

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Availability:

The collection is open for research use.

Preferred Citation:

[Indicate the cited item and/or series here]. Stuart Leck papers. Minnesota Historical Society.

See the Chicago Manual of Style for additional examples.

Accession Information:

Accession number: 15,072; 15,180

Location of Master Files:

Digital masters of audiocassettes are maintained on the Society's secure digital collections storage servers and are managed and preserved in accordance with archival best practices.

The original audiocassettes were disposed after they were digitally reformatted into WAV files.

Processing Information:

Processed by: Frank Hennessy, April 1996.

Digital audio transferred from the master audiocassettes by the Minnesota Historical Society for preservation purposes (August 2019).

Catalog ID number: 990017329200104294

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This collection is indexed under the following headings in the catalog of the Minnesota Historical Society. Researchers desiring materials about related topics, persons or places should search the catalog using these headings.

Topics:

Buildings -- Minnesota.

Civic leaders -- Minnesota -- Minneapolis.

Construction industry -- Minnesota.

Persons:

Leck family.

Leck, James, 1862-1928.

Leck, Jennie, 1865-1962.

Matthews family.

Matthews family.

Organizations:

Citizens League (Minneapolis, Minn.)

Citizens Organized for Responsible Government (Minneapolis, Minn.).

Good Government Group (Minneapolis, Minn.).

James Leck Company (Minneapolis, Minn.).

Places:

Minneapolis (Minn.) -- Industries.

Minneapolis (Minn.) -- Politics and government.

Document Types:

Audio recordings.

Photographs.

Titles:

James Leck Company.

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