Leonard Ludel dies at 95 in Reno

by Sheila Gardner

Staff Writer

Former Carson Valley resident Leonard Ludel, who put Gardnerville on the map in 1967 when he founded the American School of Diamond Cutting, died July 13 at his home in Reno. He was 95.

His was preceded in death by his wife, Betty Ann, who passed away on May 22. She was 85.

"That took a lot out of his heart," said Ludel's stepson, Ted Gelber. "They were married just about 28 years."

Son Sam Ludel said Betty Ann Ludel was his father's caregiver for the last year and a half as he dealt with congestive heart failure.

"She was very insistent that he was going to keep going. He tried. He had his mental faculties right to the end. He was thinking and lucid at least until Betty Ann passed. You would have thought he was 25 years younger," Sam Ludel said.

"She very quickly took a turn. But she passed without suffering or prolonged illness. But that was it for my father. He lost his zeal. He and Betty Ann were a very close couple, he said.

Leonard Ludel was born in 1912 in Amsterdam while his parents were visiting the country from the United States.

They returned to Brooklyn, N.Y., when he was six months old and moved to California in 1924.

Sam Ludel said his family vacationed in the area in the 50s and 60s.

"My father worked in Reno at the very end of the Second World War and took the V&T to Minden. He always had an affinity for this area. My earliest recollection of camping was at Elks Point," said Ludel who lives in Yerington.

On a trip from Carson City, Leonard Ludel saw a home on Main Street in Gardnerville with a "For Sale" sign.

"Within months we were purchasing the house and moving from Southern California," Sam Ludel said.

Leonard Ludel was a third generation diamond cutter and apprenticed in his father's Maiden Lane District shop in New York City.

He opened a cutting shop and jewelry store in Gardnerville in 1963 and founded the nationally accredited American School of Diamond Cutting in 1967 that operated from his shop on Main Street in Gardnerville.

Ludel was very active in Carson Valley civic and business activities.

Tahoe Township Judge Richard Glasson said he considered Ludel his mentor and best friend for 30 years.

"Spending an afternoon with Len was like spending time with a combination of Solomon, Shakespeare and Lenny Bruce," Glasson said. "He provided me with so much wisdom, guidance and love over the years. I consulted with him almost weekly on everything from ethics to economics, politics to theology. And he was usually correct.

"He had been a teamster, a Wobbly, a boxer and a teacher. He was one of the foremost master diamond cutters in the world," Glasson said.

Glasson said he visited Ludel a few days before he died and could tell that his longing for his wife was taking a toll.

"His final words to me were, 'I want to be with her.' He just couldn't bear living without her, and I certainly understood. Their marriage was so wonderful " their love for each other so strong," Glasson said.

Ludel was one of the driving forces behind the successful bond issue that paid for the Carson Valley Swim Center, now 20 years old.

"He was one of those ageless gentlemen who never grows older," said Suzy Stockdale who worked with Ludel on the pool project.

"He was just a grand gentleman and a real inspiration to all of us. He's one of the reasons I became so involved in the community. He introduced me to the concept of how one person can make a difference, that one person does count," Stockdale said.

"Everyone I ever encountered said this swim center would never have been built without him," said Kirk Chiapella, director of the Carson Valley Swim Center.

The Ludels moved to Reno in the early 1990s for health reasons, but still maintained ties to the Carson Valley.

Sam Ludel said the couple would be interred at the family plot in Genoa Cemetery.

"It was their wish that there be no memorial. He had a strong pull to Gardnerville " the community he loved so much " right to the very end. Had it not been for health issues, he would have stayed there," he said.