A psychologist who fought to protect victims of abuse died Wednesday.
Merlin Delbert Leach of Osage was 71.
He died unexpectedly on a day when he'd been working in the yard and active on social media. No cause of death was disclosed as of late Friday.
Leach and his wife Anita Engert started the Merlin Foundation in Green Forest, which included a Children's Advocacy Center that's now a separate nonprofit group. The center, known as Grandma's House, serves several counties in north Arkansas from two locations.
Leach maintained the Grandma's House facility in Green Forest while working with Michelle Steiner, director of the Harrison facility.
"There's going to be an empty space in our world," Steiner said. "He was my mentor, and he was my friend. I would say he was a father figure, but he was my bearded mother. He will be deeply missed. Where there was injustice for women and children, he was there to try to fill the gap."
Leach was born born July 11, 1944, in Croswell, Mich. He graduated from Saint Mary's College of California in 1977.
Leach was a psychologist in private practice behavioral medicine from 1982 to 1992.
After leaving private practice in the Los Angeles area, he retired to Carroll County thinking he would relax and run an organic farm.
"My intent was to get away from my long-time work with child abuse and neglect. It's not a fun business," Leach told the Lovely County Citizen in 2002.
But that didn't last for long.
In 1993, he started his Merlin Foundation, a nonprofit charity providing assistance to victims of child abuse, rape and domestic violence in the Ozark Mountains. More recently, the foundation has focused on victims of child abuse as other agencies offered assistance to victims of rape and domestic abuse. The foundation provides community services while working on public policy and advocacy.
According to its website, merlinfoundation.org, the foundation's Center For Children and Public Policy is a "nationwide resource for policy makers on children's issues involving abuse and/or neglect."
Under the foundation's leadership, a "multidisciplinary team" was formed in Carroll County in 1994 to investigate allegations of child abuse and neglect. A child fatality review team also was formed.
The foundation provides parenting classes at little or no cost.
"Our work is going to continue on," Steiner said.
Leach also founded Itty Bitty Productions of Alpena, a nonprofit video production business named after a cat.
Beginning in 1998, Leach served for many years on the Arkansas Commission on Child Abuse, Rape and Domestic Violence and was chairman of the commission part of that time. He left the commission at the end of 2015.
"He was great in terms of collaborating to get things done legislatively and policy-wise," said Max Snowden, who has been executive director of the commission since 1997. "He's going to be greatly missed. I've depended on him a lot in the work of the commission."
Snowden said Leach was a registered lobbyist who worked to influence policy primarily on issues affecting the welfare of children. He said Leach was one of three people on a review panel monitoring and evaluating the Division of Children and Family Services within the Arkansas Department of Human Services.
Leach also was chairman of the breast health initiative at the Susan G. Komen Foundation's Ozark affiliate, which is based in Springdale.
In 2006, Leach ran for state representative as a Democrat but lost the race to Bryan King, a Green Forest Republican who now serves in the state Senate.
Although he moved to Arkansas to retire, Leach worked his whole life.
"He said he retired, but he never did," Steiner said.
Cremation arrangements are being made by Smith Family Funeral Home of Green Forest.
NW News on 06/18/2016