Leon Clinton Hull, Jr. of Yarmouth Port, MA, formerly of Newport and Portsmouth, RI, died on March 21, 2025 at his home in Yarmouth Port. He was born on July 6, 1926 in Colon, Panama, while his father was stationed in the Canal Zone. He graduated with honors from De La Salle Academy in Newport in 1943. As an army medic in World War II, he served with the Americal Division on Cebu in the Philippines and was awarded a medical valor badge along with the Philippine Liberation medal. He served for a year in the occupation of Japan, where he was responsible for distributing medical supplies to the entire First Cavalry Division. He graduated from the University of Vermont in 1951 and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. In 1969 he earned a MA in English from the University of Rhode Island and in 1979 a PhD in Communication and Rhetoric from Rensselear Polytechnic Institute.

He married Maureen Agnes Davis on April 30, 1960. Leon worked as a technical writer and editor for 27 years at the Naval Underwater Systems Center in Newport and the Navy Electronics Laboratory in San Diego. While at NUSC he was Associate Head of the Technical Information Department and received the Navy Meritious Civilian Service Award. Following his retirement from Civil Service in 1986, he devoted his time to writing fiction. His short stories have appeared in a number of magazines and journals.

Leon and Maureen relocated to Yarmouth Port on Cape Cod in 2004. He continued to write, mostly longer fiction. In 2020 he published New England Gensis: A Trilogy, three novels dealing with three generations in the family of his immigrant ancestor, Reverand Joseph Hull, an Anglican Minister who arrived in New England in 1635 and established the towns of Weymouth and Barnstable. Another novel titled Occupying Powers, based on his experience in World War II and the occupation of Japan, was published in 2013. His final work, a literary memoir titled Nine Muses and a Wife, was published in 2023 at 97 years old.

Aside from his lifelong devotion to writing, his principal interests were in music and travel. He was a member of St. Joseph’s choir and the Swanhurst Choral Society in Newport. With his wife he traveled widely in Europe and North America. His mother, the late Irmgard Kitzler Hull was born in 1895 in Horn, Austria and he made frequent trips to Vienna to visit relatives there. His father, the late Leon Clinton Hull was born in 1902 in Jamestown, RI.

Leon is predeceased by his parents and wife. He is survived by a brother, Richard J. Hull, of Pauley’s Island, SC; a sister Lorraine O’Connors of Harmony, RI; six nieces and nephews; and a number of cousins in the United States and Austria.

Funeral Mass will be celebrated on Saturday, April 12, 2025 at 11:00am at Saint Pius X, Station Ave, South Yarmouth. Interment will follow at Ancient Cemetery in Yarmouth Port.

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