Leslie Nelson Shaw Sr. was born in Columbus, Ohio. He attended
Ohio State University and graduated in 1949 with a degree in business. Shaw also fought in Italy during
WWII and was awarded a
Bronze Star Medal for bravery. He married
Ann Shaw (social worker) in 1947, a family friend and classmate at Ohio State University. Leslie and Ann moved to Los Angeles, where Leslie worked in the savings and loans industry. His first position was as a teller at Watts Savings and Loans, which later became Family Savings and Loans where he served as Vice President. Leslie also served as a fundraiser for the Democratic Party. In 1958, he worked on the Governor
Pat Brown campaign and for the
John F. Kennedy and
Lyndon B. Johnson presidential campaign in 1960. He went on to serve on the party’s state finance committee and the Democratic national finance committee for Southern California, raising money as the treasurer of the President Kennedy dinner, appointed by Attorney General
Stanley Mosk. In 1963, President Kennedy appointed Leslie as the
Postmaster of Los Angeles, making him the first African American to serve as Postmaster of any major city in the United States. In that role, he was responsible for operation of the third largest post office in the United States. In 1981, he was elected president of the Savings Associations Mortgage Corporation (SAMCO) to serve a one-year term. SAMCO is a cooperative lending project in California, designed to provide loans to lower-income individuals who might not regularly qualify for a loan. That same year, Mayor
Tom Bradley (American politician) selected Leslie to be president of the Private Industry Council where he directed a $35 million job-training program for lower-income participants in more than 60 programs In addition to those positions, Leslie served on the boards of the Rotary Club, the
Braille Institute of America, Los Angeles
National Urban League, public television station
KCET,
Lockheed Corporation, and
United Way. After his death, Congressman
Mervyn Dymally introduced a bill to name a new Los Angeles postal facility after Leslie N. Shaw. The legislation was cosponsored by Congressmen
Augustus Hawkins and
Julian Dixon, Congressional Black Caucus Chairman
Mickey Leland, and Post Office and Civil Service Committee member Rep. William Clay. Leslie died in 1985 in Los Angeles at the age of 62. == References ==