Thomas W. Leonard; Businessman

Thomas W. Leonard, a descendant of Ventura County’s pioneering McGrath family and the developer of the first frozen vegetable plant in the West, died Saturday. He was 88.

Leonard, the grandson of pioneers Dominick and Bridget Donlon McGrath, eventually became the reigning patriarch of the large McGrath family.

He was born in the first wooden home built on the south side of the Santa Clara River and grew up to manage the agricultural lands in the Santa Clara Valley, Camarillo and Oxnard that he inherited from his parents, James and Sarah Ellen McGrath Leonard.

In 1947, Leonard built the first plant in the West for freezing locally grown vegetables. Initially called Ventura Farms Frozen Foods, the plant later became Oxnard Frozen Foods Corp.

Despite his heavy business responsibilities, Leonard was a devoted family man, his children said.

“The family was always foremost,” said Ann Ownings, 54, the second oldest of Leonard’s five children.

“He was a very patient, quiet person but with a real sense of humor underneath and a very loving person,” she said.

In addition to Ownings, who now lives in Davis, Leonard is survived by his wife, Constance of Camarillo; a son, Tom R. Leonard of Camarillo; three daughters, Mary Jo McPherson of Camarillo, Sarah Jane Castruccio of Los Angeles and Margaret Ellen Leonard of San Jose; three sisters in Camarillo, Santa Barbara and Ventura, and 12 grandchildren and one great-granddaughter.

Burial Mass will be at 11 a.m. today at St. Mary Magdalen Church in Camarillo.

Funeral arrangements are being handled by James A. Reardon Mortuary in Oxnard. Donations can be sent to the Dominick and Bridget McGrath Fund, c/o the Ventura County Community Foundation, 1355 Del Norte Road, Camarillo, 93010.