John Francis Leddy was born 16 April 1911 in Ottawa, but was raised and educated in Saskatoon. He received both a BA (1930) and MA (1931) from the University of Saskatchewan. Leddy took up postgraduate work at the University of Chicago in 1932 and went to Oxford as the Saskatchewan Rhodes Scholar; he earned a B.Litt. (1935) and a D.Phil. (1938). In 1936 he joined the U of S Classics Department as an Instructor; by 1946 he was Professor and Head of the Department. Leddy held several administrative positions, many of them concurrently; he served as: member of the University Senate (1945-1964); Director of Summer School (1942-1949); Dean of Arts and Sciences (1949-1964); and Vice-President (Academic) (1961-1964). In 1964 Leddy was appointed President of the University of Windsor. Throughout his career, Leddy served on a variety of national and international organizations, and his contributions in the field of education have been widely recognized: he received honourary degrees from ten Canadian Universities and one from the Hanyang University in Seoul, Korea. He was made an Officer of the Order of Canada in 1972. Leddy also holds several honours for his work as a layman in the Catholic church.