Loeffler Obit
SMA School History
Last Owner of SMA Dies
The following obituary was published in the January 21, 1989 edition of the Washington Post.
OBITUARIES
LAYNE E. LEOFFLER, SR.
Golf Course Operator
Layne E. Leoffler Sr., 67, a partner in the operation of public golf courses in Washington and a former owner of Staunton Military Academy, died January 19, 1989 at his home in Ormond Beach, Florida, of complications resulting from a lung ailment.
Mr. Leoffler was a native Washingtonian, and a graduate of Staunton Military Academy, which he purchased for $1 million in 1973.
The academy had once been the largest private secondary school in the South, but when Mr. Leoffler purchased it enrollments were falling and the school was losing money.
He had hated the rigorous discipline while a student, Mr. Leoffler recalled, but he came to appreciate it while serving in the Army in North Africa during World War II. He bought the school in an effort to keep it from closing, but the effort failed and it closed in 1976.
Mr. Leoffler had been a partner in S.G. Leoffler Co., a family business that operated golf courses at Hains Point, Rock Creek Park and Fort Dupont, and the Riverside Skating Rink where the Kennedy Center is now located. All the golf courses were eventually sold to the National Park Service.
Mr. Leoffler had also operated a golf course in Boca Raton, Fla., and a clay mine in South Carolina. He also had invested in real estate.
He first moved to Ormond Beach in 1977, then returned to this area in 1983 and purchased Robin Dale Golf and Country Club in Waldorf. He had lived in Waldorf until moving back to Ormond Beach last September.
He was a past worshipful master of Lafayette Masonic Lodge in Washington and a member of Grace Brethren Church in Temple Hills.
Survivors include his wife, Jean Leoffler of Ormond Beach; three sons, Lane E. Leoffler Jr. of Waldorf, Alfred and Robin Leoffler, both of Ormond Beach; two daughters, Debra Leoffler of Waldorf and Lisa Leoffler of Ormond Beach; and four grandchildren.
