E B Leisenring Jr

Edward Barnes Leisenring was born in Bryn Mawr, Pa., and grew up in a family that had climbed from the coalfields to the heights of Main Line Philadelphia. Mr. Leisenring traced his roots in the coal industry to his great-grandfather John who started a company in the hard coal, or anthracite, region of Pennsylvania in 1835. It developed into a skein of small companies that grew into bigger ones. In 1882, the Leisenrings acquired major holdings in the Westmoreland Coal Company, one of Pennsylvania’s biggest producers. They also controlled the even bigger Stonega Coke and Coal Company. Mr. Leisenring was president of Westmoreland from 1961 to 1988 and chairman for another 10 years. In 1964, he merged Stonega into Westmoreland. Mr. Leisenring attended the Episcopal Academy in Newtown Square, Pa., and the Hotchkiss School in Connecticut before enrolling at Yale. There he and 19 other Philadelphia bachelors organized the Flask and Bottle Society, a social organization. He graduated in 1949. He married Julia duPont Bissell, a member of a socially prominent family in Wilmington, Del. She survives him, as do his children Erica Leisenring, Edward W. and John Leisenring; and nine grandchildren.