Gregory D. Leschishin
1955–2025 — Born 22 May 1955, Cleveland area; died 5 May 2025, Lowell.
Also recorded as: Greg Leschishin.
A housemate at Chateau Fairmount in his last years, remembered here with affection.
Remembered. A recent resident, written from memory and from public tributes rather than from archives.
Life
Greg Leschishin was the kind of housemate a big old house is lucky to get: tall, unhurried, interested in everyone. He grew up in the Cleveland suburbs, the third of four brothers, trained as an elementary teacher and taught in Ohio, Colorado and Massachusetts; worked in Los Angeles for Cash Box magazine in the early 1980s; and, after moving to Massachusetts, gave the rest of his life to boxing — as a Golden Gloves fighter in his youth, then as a coach, gym owner, nationally ranked referee and a founder of the Masters Boxing division for athletes over thirty-seven. He called the sport “physical chess” and taught it that way, at Hanscom Air Force Base and in community gyms, to men and women of every age. In retirement he taught popular-music history to adult-education classes and led local walks.
On the evening of 2 May 2025 he was walking on a Lowell sidewalk when he was struck by a car whose driver was fleeing the police. He died three days later, aged sixty-nine. The region’s boxing community honoured him with a ten-count at a charity bout that week; his brothers remembered a tough fighter who was, outside the ring, “a gentle man”, and a person who could befriend almost anyone he met. He is survived by his brothers Denis, Mark and Taras and by the many people he coached.
He asked that gifts in his memory go to the Lowell Parks & Conservation Trust, NPR and PBS. The castle remembers him.
What remains uncertain
Nothing in this profile is presented as more certain than its sources allow.
Records consulted
Public tributes and family notices; see the text.
Help us get Gregory right
This page is a working record, not a finished one. If you are a descendant, a collector, a local historian or an archivist and you hold anything connected to Gregory D. Leschishin — a photograph, a letter, a diary, an object, a family story, a document we have misread — we would like to hear from you. We publish nothing without permission, credit every contribution, and correct the page when the evidence says we should.
We are especially looking for:
- Photographs and memories from friends, students and the boxing community, for a fuller tribute.