Dr. Leonard Charles Labine Turns 90

On 16 February 2010 Dr. Leonard Charles Labine will celebrate a milestone of his life - his 90th birthday. The son of Louis-Urgel Labine and Ila Lombarde, Leonard began life on 16 February 1920 in Nashua, New Hampshire.

Until he graduated from high school at age 18, Leonard lived with his mother and maternal grandparents in Nashua. He and his mother traveled to Moscow, Idaho in 1938 where Leonard attended the University of Idaho at Moscow to study pre-dentistry. After graduating from the University of Idaho, Leonard entered the University of Kentucky dental school in Louisville.

While attending college, he played both baseball and football. From the late 1950’s until 1990 Leonard volunteered as the local sports broadcaster where he was known as the “Voice of the Moscow Bears”. In 1994 Leonard was inducted into the Idaho Sports Hall of Fame.

While at the University of Idaho, Leonard enrolled in the U. S. Army R.O.T.C. program. He entered the University of Kentucky dental school in 1942 as an Army officer. The dental program at the University of Kentucky was cancelled while Leonard was there. He then served a short time overseas with the U. S. Navy Seabeas before finishing dental school with the Army and serving an internship at the Presidio Hospital in San Francisco, California. On leaving the military in 1952, he returned to Idaho and opened a dental practice in Genesse before moving his practice to Moscow, Idaho in 1954 where he remained until his retirement.

Leonard married Camille Joyce Short in September 1943 in Moscow and they had three sons and a daughter. Their children are: Suzanne Lee Labine born in 1948, Lance Craig Labine in 1951, Leonard Charles Labine, Jr. in 1954 and Lon Labine in 1956. Today he has 11 grandchildren and 9 great-grandchildren.

Friends will visit Dr. Labine on his birthday at an open house where he will be surrounded by his children, grandchildren, nieces and nephews. It should be a memorable day for Dr. Labine as he celebrates this significant milestone of life.