Albany County is honoring a late veteran and local political fixture.
Former Village of Colonie Mayor Frank Leak, a World War II Navy veteran, is Albany County's veteran of the month for March.
County Executive Dan McCoy says Leak, who served as a Storekeeper in 1945 and 1946, was a true role model.
McCoy hosted a ceremony Monday at VFW Post 8692 in Colonie.
“Knowing what he did, to put his life on the line and to go into the Navy and do a service and come back and continue. That is the greatest generation- our foundation’s built off of World War II vets that that came back and dug in and did extraordinary things.”
Leak served as mayor from 1995 until 2019.
Drafted into the Navy before graduating high school, Leak was finally awarded his diploma in 2019 while being inducted into the Colonie Central High School Hall of Fame. He’s heard here in an interview with WNYT.
“It’s one of the highlights of my life. To be presented a plaque and awards [for] things that I’ve done, which I do for the kids.”
He died in 2020 at age 93.
McCoy says Leak taught him there’s no such thing as a free lunch, relating an anecdote about the former mayor taking him for a meal at the village’s senior center.
“I’m like, ‘I don't know if I can eat this,’ you know, ‘I'm not eligible.’ And he goes, ‘Don't worry about it. I'm the mayor. We're gonna have lunch here. It's on me.’ I'm like,’ You're not paying for it, it's not on you.’ And, you know, we get through it, and I move on. And then a couple weeks later, he goes, ‘Hey, where's my lunch? You owe me a lunch.’ And I'm like, ‘oh, where are we gonna go? Oh, let's go to Smokey Bones. I go, ‘wait a minute.’”
Republican deputy mayor Patty Schwarz Lockart, a former village trustee and current Albany County Legislator from the 26th District, recalled campaigning with Leak.
“Every door that we went to. He knew somebody in that household, and he knew something about them, and he not he helped so many of those people. Times when I would say, Frank, I don't know if we can do that. And he'd say, it doesn't matter we we're here for the people patty. And he never got anything for himself. It was always for the people.”
Albany Mayor Kathy Sheehan, a Democrat like McCoy, says Leak was a guiding light, not just for her when she succeeded longtime Mayor Jerry Jennings in 2014.
“He was somebody, as part of the New York Conference of Mayors, who helped other mayors, new mayors that would come on board. The New York Conference of Mayors includes not just cities like Albany, but villages big and small across the state. And Frank was a true mentor to many, many village mayors across the state of New York, and helped them to ensure that they had the tools that they needed.”
Mae Leak is Frank’s widow. She says it was a surprise to hear her late husband had been named the county’s veteran of the month.
“Me and Frank were married in 2014 and our life together was great, even though we only had few years. He was a great man and great dad, grandfather, and he loved the village.”
