This is a Historical Collection of the company, not the complete business records of the company. The collection was preserved by Mr. Donald Godrey until it was donated to the Clarke. The collection is physically in good to excellent condition. A few fragile newspaper clippings were photocopied. The collection documents the history of Leonard Refineries in Alma, its mergers and changes, advertising, plants, fires, and people.
The collection consists of over 4,000 negatives and photographs; subject files; oversized volumes, including scrapbooks, photograph albums, and newspaper clippings; oversized advertising and photographs; and 2 copies of a CD of Leonard radio advertising songs, some dated 1959. The collection is organized by format and size, then by topic and date. Series include the following: Negatives (which vary in size, 20 boxes, 10 cubic ft.); Mixed Materials (1 box, .5 cubic ft.); Photographs (3 boxes, 1.5 cubic ft.); Papers, Subject Files, which includes a cassette tape, VHS tape, and booklets (3 boxes, 1.25 cubic ft.); and 36 Oversized Volumes, 3 Oversized Folders, and 2 CDs (approximately 20 cubic ft.). A more detailed inventory of the negatives in Boxes 1-20 follows the box and folder listing. Also included is a 16 mm color film of the 1968 Press on regardless National Rally organized by the Detroit Region Sports Car Club of America and sponsored by Leonard, which traveled from Alma to Gaylord and Grayling, Michigan, and back. Scott Harvey is featured in the beginning of the film. The film last 26 minutes and 58 seconds. A hard drive copy of the Rally is also included, reformatted from the film in 2011. A more detailed inventory of the negatives in Boxes 1-20 follows the box and folder listing.
Biography:
The Leonard Oil Refinery of Alma, Michigan, was one of Michigan’s leading refiners and retailers of petroleum products. In 1936 Leonard took over a refinery in Alma that had operated since 1934. Leonard was one of Michigan’s best known companies in the 1950s and 1960s. Its advertising campaigns were often innovative and built around the quality and high octane of its products. In 1956 Leonard marketed a gasoline with a 105 octane rating, enough to fly a plane. There was not high demand for it. Leonard also sponsored major television programs about the outdoors, including Michigan Outdoors.
In 1970 Leonard merged with Total Petroleum and operated under the Total name. In 1972 Total moved the firm’s headquarters to Denver, Colorado, and sold its Michigan holdings to Ultramar Diamond Shamrock (UDS) in 1997. In 1999 UDS sold 179 Total retail outlets to Marathon Ashland Petroleum. Also that year, production at Alma stopped as it had not been purchased by UDS. Later the Alma plant was demolished. (This edited version of the Leonard Refinery’s history is from the Clarke Historical Library’s Board of Governors Meeting, April 30, 2009.)
