Dr. Leo V. Kanawada, Jr.

                   1959                               1972 Hicksville Faculty

was born in 1941 in Flushing, Long Island , New York , and educated at Bucknell University , where he received his Bachelor of Science Degree in Secondary Education. His Masters of Arts Degree in American History was awarded by The Maxwell School at Syracuse University , and his Ph.D. in History by St. John's University , Jamaica , New York .

After serving as a decorated captain of Infantry, United States Army, with the Second Infantry Division in 1966 in South Korea and in the Vietnam War in 1967 with the 71st Assault Helicopter Company and as a platoon leader with the 196th Light Infantry Brigade, Americal Division, Kanawada returned to his hometown and taught in the Hicksville Public Schools for thirty years. In the Department of History at Hicksville High School , he created and taught a Humanities Honors Program for the Gifted and Talented and was later honored and inducted into the Hicksville High School Hall of Fame.
He was also cited in Who's Who in New York , in Who's Who Among America's Teachers, and in the Directory of American Scholars. His first book, authored in 1982, was a scholarly work on the presidency and American foreign policy entitled FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT'S DIPLOMACY and American Catholics, Italians, and Jews (UMI Research Press/Pro Quest). And later as an elder and president of his Church, he published SOMETHING WORTHWHILE: The Life and Times of The Parkway Community Church, 1628-1981 (Exposition Press).

The five volumes in THE HOLOCAUST DIARIES (AuthorHouse) were a labor of love, realized after more than a decade of research, writing, and devotion. Lee Kanawada lives with his wife, Carol, in Long Island , New York .