In her former life as a professor, Marilynn Leonard never imagined how much she’d love flying around in Coast Guard helicopters, climbing on boats to perform vessel inspections and teaching people about boating safety.

But Leonard took to her work with the U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary like the proverbial fish to water. “If I’d known this was my forte, I probably would have done this for my career instead of getting a doctorate degree and sitting in an office all the time,” she said.

Between June 2006, when she joined the organization, and the end of last year, Leonard volunteered more than 5,400 hours—averaging about 43 hours weekly—as a Coast Guard Auxiliary member. Her varied work has so far included serving as a vessel examiner, instructor and public affairs officer. She oversees about 25 people, has recruited new members and even started a new Auxiliary detachment in Forks, Washington.

For her dedication and enthusiasm, Leonard was recently selected as the Coast Guard Auxiliarist of the year for 2008. She was chosen from among 16 Auxiliary nominees, one from each of the organization’s districts throughout the country. Leonard will receive the award this Saturday, Aug. 29, at a national conference in Chicago.

She said though she knew she’d been nominated, she was surprised to learn she’d been chosen for the award. “It was a big surprise and a very happy surprise,” said Leonard, who lives near Port Angeles. “And it’s pretty thrilling. I have a warm-fuzzy going on all the time now.”

Tom Nunes, deputy chief of public affairs for the Coast Guard Auxiliary, trained Leonard and described her as an “affable, bright, determined” person who leads by example.

“She’s demonstrated sincere leadership qualities. It’s do as I do, not as I say,” Nunes said. “She stands out. She’s been a major player and really made a difference.”

Leonard wasn’t planning to join the Auxiliary when she and her husband, Leo, met a captain from the Coast Guard’s Port Angeles station at a Rotary Club meeting in late 2005. At the time, the Leonards had been living in New Zealand for two years, enjoying a leisurely existence. Marilynn had retired from her job as a professor of business administration at Westminster College in Utah in 2000 and Leo was a retired dean of education, human development and travel and travel and tourism at George Washington University.

They were in the process of moving back to the Northwest and got chatting with the Coast Guard captain. “One thing led to another and the next thing you know, Leo and I each had a job in the Coast Guard Auxiliary,” said Marilynn, 66.

Before long, Leonard was hooked into a leather harness, working on a photo mapping project from the open hatch of a Coast Guard helicopter as it flew through the air. It thrilled her. She soon took on additional responsibilities, adding more than a dozen medals to her Auxiliary uniform to mark her various qualifications and achievements.

Marilynn Leonard enjoys a rare free moment during a picnic at the U.S. Coast Guard station in Port Angeles.

She likes the pace of the job and its unpredictability. “There is not a typical day, and that’s one of the things I like about it the best,” Leonard said. “It’s exciting. You don’t always know how it’s going to shake out and sometimes your priorities have to change every few hours.”

Leonard says she and her husband, an Auxiliary flotilla commander for the Port Angeles area, often work six days a week. “We haven’t had a vacation since this whole thing started,” she said, laughing. “My husband has even more hours than I do.”

Though the couple’s commitment might be extraordinary, their capability and intelligence are characteristic of Auxiliary volunteers, said Andre Billeaudeaux, director of the Auxiliary for the Coast Guard’s 13th District, which includes Washington, Oregon, Idaho and Montana.

“We have a lot of very smart professionals, Fortune 100 people who have retired and this is what they want to do,” Billeaudeaux said. “The various professions represented are incredible. There’s no other national treasure like this. This is a brain trust. This is intellectual capital unbridled.”

There are about 42,000 active duty Coast Guard members nationally and about 30,000 Auxiliary members who perform tasks ranging from patrol work to training. By educating boaters and enforcing safety regulations, Billeaudeaux said, Auxiliary members help the Coast Guard fulfill its mission and also lower the number of incidents it must respond to.

“We have missions everywhere, from Antarctica to the Arctic, from Asia to Africa,” he said. “We’re spread thin. Without the Auxiliary, there’s no way the regular Coast Guard could do what it does today.”

Auxiliary members also provide a valuable continuity, Billeaudeaux said. Active duty Coast Guard members typically spend two to four years in one region and then move on, while Auxiliary members often work in the same district for long periods.

“They’re the keeper of knowledge of the area of responsibility, of tides, of marinas, of key people, of politics, of the maritime domain issues,” Billeaudeaux said. “It’s an incredible amount of knowledge and collective wisdom.”

Lately, Leonard has been spending much of her time working as a public affairs officer for the Port Angeles base. She also oversees Auxiliary members who work in Port Angeles, Forks and Neah Bay, and is a manager for the Citizen’s Action Network, a Coast Guard program that recruits people working or living near waterways to keep an eye on those areas.

Leonard said she can’t imagine a second retirement in the foreseeable future. “I’m sure we are in this for a long time,” she said. “There’s always a lot to learn and a lot of people to meet. It’s just kind of a fascinating place to be.”

If there’s one downside, it’s the lack of time Leonard and her husband have to get out boating on their 19-foot Glasply runabout.

“I haven’t had the boat in the water for three years,” Leonard said ruefully. “I was just lamenting that.”

About Deborah Bach

Deborah Bach is the editor and co-founder of Three Sheets Northwest. She is an avid sailor and long-time professional journalist. You can find Deborah aboard Three Sheets, an Island Packet 38, with her husband Marty and their cat Lily.

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