CARMEL, CALIFORNIA.- Architect Eason Harris Leonard, 83, died. He was a founding partner of the firm I. M. Pei & Partners, which is now called Pei Cobb Freed & Partners. According to his family, the cause of death was pneumonia. Eason H. Leonard was the managing partner of the firm for more than 30 years. He was responsible for hiring and guiding several hundred architects that worked for the firm.   

Among the projects the firm handled were: the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and the John Hancock Tower in Boston, Raffles City in Singapore, the Bank of China Tower in Hong Kong, the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center in New York, the United States Holocaust Museum in Washington, the East Wing of the National Gallery of Art in Washington, the Meyerson Symphony Center in Dallas, and the modernization of the Louvre in Paris. 

Eason H. Leonard was born in El Reno, Okla., in June 5, 1920. He graduated from Oklahoma State University in 1943. During World War II he served with the Army Corps of Engineers. He then worked for several architects, among them William Lescaze. 

He began to do work with I. M. Pei in the 1950’s. He got the following awards: Centennial Advisory Commission, Oklahoma State University  1985–1990; Chicago Architecture Award, Illinois Council of The American Institute of Architects  1985; Poses Creative Arts Award: Medal for Architecture, Brandeis University  1981; Hall of Fame, Oklahoma State University  1979