bruschetti_extra1Leonard Carpenter worked for BFGoodrich in Akron, Ohio, where he also raised his family. According to his daughter Lynne, he always kept a comb, handkerchief, and penknife in his pockets and used clippers to cut his grass “because he wanted every blade of grass to be exactly the same height.”

His grandson Jack Bruschetti was born in 1999, the same year Leonard died from Alzheimer’s disease at the age of 86.

At StoryCorps, Jack, 13, asked his mother, Lynne, to share with him more about his grandfather.

Originally aired July 19, 2013, on NPR’s Morning Edition.

Above: Leonard Carpenter in Kentucky, where he grew up, in the early 1940s. Photo courtesy of Lynne Bruschetti.