Marine Corps General Leonard Fribourg Dies at 72

Leonard Earl Fribourg, a retired Marine Corps brigadier general who served in three wars before becoming an executive at an Orange County food services firm, died over the weekend. He was 72.

Fribourg’s wife, Dottie, said he died Saturday afternoon of complications arising from a staph infection.

The funeral will be at 1 p.m. Thursday at the base chapel at El Toro Marine Corps Air Station, with burial at El Toro Memorial Cemetery.

Fribourg is survived by two children, both living in Orange County, and four grandchildren.

A member of the Marine Corps’ “Raider Regiment” in World War II, Fribourg served as an officer in Korea and Vietnam and rose to the rank of brigadier general in 1969, his family said.

As a brigadier, he held leadership positions with the Marines in the Pacific, directed the Marine Corps Reserves and was acting commander at Camp Pendleton from May, 1974, through his retirement two months later. He also helped found Toys for Tots, a national campaign orchestrated by the Marines to provide toys for needy children at Christmas.

After leaving the Marines, Fribourg was a manager for 14 years at Bromar Inc., a food brokerage firm in Orange County. He and his wife lived in Newport Beach for nearly two decades before his death.

“He was just an outstanding, huge man,” said Mark Thiffault, a lieutenant colonel in the Marine Corps Reserves who said Fribourg helped him get his reserve commission. “He was always one of those leaders that somehow got people to follow him. He didn’t work at it--he just had the natural charisma to get people to want to do things for him.”