Dr. Leonard M. Elstad was born in Osseo, Wisconsin, on February 8, 1899. He was the son of Rev. Ole H. Elstad, a Lutheran minister. Dr. Elstad was educated in Wisconsin and North Dakota. His association with education started in 1917 as he taught in a one-room rural school in North Dakota. He graduated from St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minnesota, in 1922. He came to Gallaudet College and graduated with a Master’s Degree in 1923. He became a teacher at Gallaudet after a year in the program. He coached women’s basketball and men’s baseball. The following year he taught and also was a principal of the Kendall School.

In 1925, Dr. Elstad was hired to become assistant principal of the Wright Oral School in New York City. In 1932, he became superintendent of the Minnesota School for the Deaf in Faribault, Minnesota. Gallaudet College hired him to become their third president in 1945, preceded by Percival Hall.

Dr. Elstad, who had two honorary degrees, presided over an important period of Gallaudet’s history, which came to be called the “Elstad Expansion Era.” Gallaudet achieved accreditation in 1957 and was significantly expanded, both in terms of enrollment and the number and capacity of the buildings on campus. The buildings were erected during his time include: the Edward Miner Gallaudet Memorial Library; Elizabeth Peet Residence Hall; Percival Hall Memorial Building; Mary Thornberry Hearing and Speech Center; Gallaudet College Auditorium, which was named after him, Elstad Auditorium; Ely Residence Hall; Student Union Building; and the Frederick H. Hughes Gymnasium. Dr. Elstad put all staff under the Civil Service Retirement plan in 1949.

Dr. Elstad retired in 1969 and passed away on June 27, 1990, at the age of 91.