They don’t come much more Boreas crown-ready than Tom Leonard.
The South St. Paul businessman, who was crowned Boreas LXXXII on Friday night, was born in St. Paul. He graduated from South St. Paul High School. He graduated from the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul. He went into the family car dealership business in South St. Paul after college. In fact, in 2024, there will have been car dealership in Leonard’s family on Concord Street in South St. Paul for 100 years.
He shoveled an ice skating rink on the lake near his house for his kids, for snowflake’s sake!
But, all is not as white as the fur cape that drapes over his shoulders for the next couple of weeks during the St. Paul Winter Carnival.
You see, Leonard was once Prince of the South Wind. Terrific, you say. He knows his way around the Winter Carnival Royal Family. He knows the duties of the days ahead: the parades, the visits to schools and nursing homes, the dances and dinners.
But the Prince of the South Wind has a warm side (which is possibly worse than a dark side when it comes to Winter Carnival). When Vulcanus Rex and his band of fiery fiends storm the realm of King Boreas at the end of the carnival each year, the Prince of the South Wind and his posse defect to the Vulcans. And with his southern winds, helps bring about the overthrow of winter and the return of warm weather.
And now this warm-weather friend will carry the scepter of the King of the Snows!
Leonard, 51, of White Bear Lake fessed-up during a royal media interview. It won’t be a problem, he says.
“It’s a play. We’re part of a play. That’s the fun part. We play a role.”
The role is based on a legend that goes back more than 130 years. According to the legend, Boreas “King of the Winds” and his four sons (one for each direction of of the wind) discovered St. Paul on his extensive travels and decided to make it the capital of all his domains. Vulcanus Rex, “the god of Fire,” vowed to resist him with “heat and roar.” King Boreas chose to fight fire with fun: “There will be a Carnival in old St. Paul!”
But the Winter Carnival Royal Family also has a very real role to play in the community, Leonard says. They are ambassadors for the wintry festival all year long.
For Leonard, that public service is an extension of a commitment to community that’s a big part of his business, Fury Motors. Leonard started in the family business when he graduated from St. Thomas in 1988. His brother, Jim, joined the business a bit later and they’re partners.
Fury Motors has sponsored the Pioneer Press Treasure Hunt during Winter Carnival since 2010.
Leonard quotes his father, Red, who will be 90 in May and still visits the dealership daily: “If you take care of someone in service, they’ll come back in sales.”
Taking care of others extends beyond the business, Leonard says. As Boreas, he’s adopted the motto: “Building strong communities one ice block at a time.”
Community involvement during the whole year is the part of the Boreas reign that most carnival-goers don’t see, “but that’s the rewarding part,” Leonard says. “The Winter Carnival is a sprint. The rest of the year is a marathon.”
His first community-involvement act as Boreas is to park a Dodge Ram truck from his dealership near the Winter Carnival ice palace in Rice Park. He wants carnival visitors to bring coats, hats and mittens to donate to people in need. He’d like to fill that truck with donations.
“My goal is to overwhelm them with hats, scarves, mittens and gloves,” he says.
Leonard’s community involvement outside Winter Carnival includes work on the River Heights Chamber of Commerce, the Neighbors community group in northern Dakota County and the National Car Dealers Council.
Family involvement is part of being in a community for the Leonards. As a former carnival prince, Leonard knows it’s a commitment the whole family makes. So when he was approached by a committee of former Boreases about taking the job in 2018, the first person he consulted was his wife, Phoebe.
“She’s the one who said to go for it,” Leonard says. The couple have a son and daughter ages 4 and 5.
The 2017 Boreas, Jason Bradshaw, wrote a children’s book in which a grandfather tells the legend of the St. Paul Winter Carnival to his grandchildren. Then he reveals he was once King Boreas.
To prepare his children for the royal news, Leonard read the book to them. “They were both really into it,” he says. At the end of the story, he asked them to guess who King Boreas would be this year. “Grandpa Red!” they said, thinking of their own grandfather.
They weren’t disappointed to learn it was Dad.
Copyright 2018 Pioneer Press.
