Leon Fanniel, Presbyterian musician, administrator, and minister, was born in 1930 in Kansas City, Mo., and graduated from Huston-Tillotson College (Austin, Tex.), George Williams College (Chicago, Ill.), and McCormick Theological Seminary. He was ordained by the Presbytery of Chicago in 1969. Fanniel was executive of the Synod of Southern California and Hawaii in 1971-1972, and became the first executive director of the General Assembly Mission Council, serving from 1972 to 1975. Fanniel served as pastor of St. Paul's Presbyterian Church (Los Angeles, Calif.) from 1975 to 1996. He died December 20, 2018 in Pasadena, California.