Frederick L. Leuchs

Frederick Ludwig Leuchs – stained glass artist
Wife: Gertrude Marie Bidwell

Religion: Roman Catholic

Frederick Ludwig Leuchs was a designer and maker of stained glass windows with ateliers in N.Y.C., Stockbridge, MA, and Saint Petersburg, FL

He was born July 10, 1926 on 164th St., The Bronx, NY, at the medical office of his grandfather, Dr. John Leuchs. Dr. Leuchs graduated on March 28, 1892 from Bellevue Hospital Medical College, City of New York, which was the precursor of Columbia College of Physicians and Surgeons.

Fred was the son of Dr. Fritz Adolph Herman Leuchs, BA, MA, PhD Columbia University. Dr. Leuchs was born on April 13, 1888 and died on Jan. 3, 1969. He was Principal of New Utrecht High School, Brooklyn, NY for over 20 years and later an administrator for the New York City Board of Education. Fred’s mother was the former Anne Marie Elisabeth “Elsie” Schneider who was an active supporter of the Convent of the Visitation in Brooklyn, NY, as her mother had been before her. Elsie Leuchs was born on July 5,1894 and died on Nov. 16,1974.

Fred graduated from Public School 201, Brooklyn, NY, New Utrecht High School and Brooklyn Tech High School in 1944. He attended the Merchant Marine Academy at King’s Point, Great Neck, Long Island under the Naval Reserve V-12 Officer training and was inducted into Naval Reserve. Following the War he attended the Pratt Institute of Design.

At the Merchant Marine Academy he studied marine engineering. He was licensed as a Marine engineer and was assigned as an Engineering Officer on a U.S. Navy attack transport in Jan.’45. He served in the European and the Atlantic Theaters of War going to France, Belgium, and England to deliver Navy supplies. He later served in the Pacific Theater transporting supplies for the invasion of Okinawa. During this battle his ship was struck by a kamikaze plane. The safety valve of the boiler had been secured to increase the speed capability of the ship. He was severely burned when the safety valve blew off upon the impact of the plane. The watertight doors were closed as a safety measure to allow the ship to maintain buoyancy for evacuation. However, this trapped him and many others below deck. His merciful rescue from below deck by a kind hand, the hours of drifting helplessly in the ocean, and his protracted recovery deepened his sense of self and others and purpose of life. Religion as an expression of reason to be (raison d’être) became his breath of life. He was hospitalized in Hawaii, San Francisco, and St. Alban’s Naval Hospital in Queens, NY for over a year.

At St. Alban’s he met the chaplain, Rev. Carr, FN who admired the religious work Fred created in the arts and crafts department. Father Carr introduced Fred to the Rev. John LaFarge, SJ, the son of the noted stained glass artist, John LaFarge. Father LaFarge, too, was impressed and in turn took Fred to meet Harold Rambusch, of the Rambusch Decorating Co. of NYC, church decorators. According to family lore, Harold told his wife of the meeting and the name of the young man, to which she replied, “Oh, that is my friend Marie Schneider’s grandson.” The ladies were friends from their work at the Visitation Convent in Brooklyn, NY.

Civilian life for Fred was interrupted by being called to service in the Army. He served in the 24th Corps, 8th Division Army until early 1947. He served as personal bodyguard for three-star general, Lt. General R. Hodge, U.S. Army commanding general of the 8th Army (Army of Occupation) in Korea. As bodyguard Fred was privileged to be present with important personages such as General Douglas MacArthur. During his off-duty time he explored the streets of Seoul. He was alarmed at the poverty particularly the abandonment of children and babies. He sought out and found a religious orphanage and it became his mission to rescue the little ones. Due to his mother’s efforts, his pleas home elicited an outpouring of donations of bolts of material to clothe the entire orphanage of 300 children and the religious staff. The State Department collected and delivered the donations to Korea. While in Korea Fred made a lasting friendship with Rev. Reiner Snel, PMS, a Dutch-born priest assigned to Korea for 6 years during the Japanese occupation, Qhum Ju. Father Snel wanted Fred to join the religious order to which he belonged, but that did not materialize. Their friendship continued stateside. Father Snel was always a great supporter of Fred’s stained glass work.

When Fred returned to civilian life he started and completed a three year internship at the Rambusch Decorating Company , 40 West 13th Street, NYC. He was privileged to work under Joep Nicolas, a third generation stained glass artist from Holland.

In 1956 he became superintendent of Heinigke & Smith Co., 13 East 13th St., NYC, the oldest stained glass firm in NYC, hoping to make the company solvent once again. Unfortunately, the next year the U.S. Government put a lien against the business and had a public sale. Fred bought it. He became incorporated under his own name, Frederick L. Leuchs, Inc., and moved the assets to 58 West 15th Street. His initial contract was with Allyn Cox for the making of stained glass windows for the chapel at the George Washington National Masonic Memorial in Alexandria, VA. This contract was followed by one for windows for Our Lady of Perpetual Help, Ozone Park, Queens, NY. Thereafter followed a long list of many more including an ongoing one for over 40 years at the National Shrine of the Divine Mercy, Stockbridge, MA with Father Walter Pelczynski, MIS, founder of the shrine.

Fred was a prolific artist, designing, creating, and restoring windows in some of the country’s most prominent institutions and homes. His works included, but were not limited to, the U.S. Library of Congress; the Cloisters of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, NYC; Riverside Church, NYC; The Cathedral of St. John the Divine, NYC; Temple Israel, Columbus, OH; St. Paul’s Cathedral, Pittsburgh, PA; dining hall and cadet residence at West Point, NY; Picasso House, NYC; the Frank Lloyd Wright designed Bousquet Ski Area lodge, Pittsfield, MA; Greek Orthodox Church of the Holy Family, Holyoke, MA; Church of the Good Shepherd, West Springfield, MA. He did private work for John F. Kennedy and his wife, Jacqueline Kennedy, Nelson Rockefeller, and the Rodner Residence in Caracas, Venezuela.

In 1953 Fred married Gertrude Marie “Marie” Bidwell of Great Barrington, MA. They were married by Rev. John LaFarge, SJ at St. Peter’s Church. Concelebrants were Monsignor, later Bishop Vincent Baldwin, Rev. Carr, FN, and Rev. Reiner Snel, PMS. They were married for 46 years and had five daughters: Paula Moats of Atlanta, GA, Catherine Bohrman of Greenwich, CT, Adele Odegaard of Long Grove, IL, Mary Anne Leuchs-de la Rosa of Baytown, TX, and Ellen Leuchs of Sunderland, MA.

In 1966 he moved his atelier to Stockbridge, MA to the former summer studio of the noted sculptor, Augustus Lukeman (Stone Mountain Memorial, Atlanta, GA.), his wife’s uncle. In 1991 St. Petersburg, FL became their winter residence where he became “artist in residence” at Eckerd College.

He was very devoted to his family, his church, his work, and his community. He was always busy, making windows or donating his time to the community. He was an active member of the Stockbridge-West Stockbridge and Lee Kiwanis Clubs for 28 years, serving as president for two terms and Lieutenant Governor for District 27. He was President of the Stockbridge Chamber of Commerce 1988-89, a member of the Knights of Columbus, Council No.513, and the American Legion, MA Post 0350. He served on the Conservation Committee in Monterey, MA. In Florida he was a member of the Sertoma Club and a member of the Property Owners Association of Snell Isle, St. Petersburg.

Where ever and always he thrived artistically and philosophically in the beauty and art of his chosen field. During his seasonal sabbatical at his home in the Berkshires, he was misdiagnosed and treated for an intestinal obstruction from adhesions from former hernia repairs. On October 3, 1999, 13 days after surgery for repair of the adhesions, Fred passed from this life from what proved to be end stage colon cancer, which had spread to his liver and lungs. His seemingly sudden departure from this life was devastating to all who knew and loved him.

Fred’s youngest sister, Anne Marie Makuc, on behalf of Fred and his family petitioned and received special authorization from the Bishop of Springfield, MA, for his funeral mass to be at The National Shrine of the Divine Mercy, Stockbridge, MA surrounded by his windows. The celebrant was Rev. Walter Pelczynski, MIS, founder of the shrine. Concelebrants were Rev. Frederick Heberle, Rev. William Wallis, Rev. Charles Allen, SJ, Rev. Gerald Finnegan, SJ, and members of the clergy of the Congregation of the Marian Fathers.

Rev. Allen’s eulogy was true and beautiful capturing Fred as most knew him. Rev. Pelczynski presided over the internment and provided the final blessings. Fred was buried in Stockbridge, MA in his wife’s family plot, overlooking the main street, which he ceaselessly traveled in his daily life. The fall foliage was ablaze in color, so appropriate for a man who lived and loved color.

In addition to his wife and five daughters, he left two sisters, Elisabeth Marie Tucker of Westfield, MA and Anne Marie Makuc of Monterey, MA.