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Dr. Walter J. Leonard, following his inauguration in 1977 as the ninth President of Fisk University in Nashville, Tennessee, noted, "I've always believed a person may have to engage in projections and postponements about his career or life's work". The fourth black to serve as president of Fisk University, Dr. Leonard's observation explains how his boyhood vision of becoming a teacher changed to a lawyer while he attended Morehouse College and Atlanta University.

During a nine-year span between 1968-1977, Dr. Leonard earned the doctor of Jurisprudence Degree at Howard University, served as the first black assistant dean at the Harvard University Law School and as Special Assistant to the President of Harvard University.

Dr. Leonard had received numerous awards for his significant contributions to the education, training and practice of black lawyers. In 1972 he received the National Bar Association President's Award for Distinguished Service to the Association and the Office of the President. 

He is the author of numerous publications including "Affirmative Action, The International Encyclopedia of Higher Education," ed. Asa Knowles, Jossey-Bass Publishers, May 1977.

Dr. Leonard is listed in Who's Who in America, 1976-1977, 1978-1979.

He is married to the former Betty Singleton, and has two children, Anthony Carlton and Angela Michele.

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