They settled in Windsor, Ontario, where Lenard completed high school and played a range of sport, including football, basketball, and track and field.
He joined the Royal Canadian Navy in 1941, served for four years during World War II, and won a number of field events at service meets, such as the discus and the javelin.
He played football and starred at quarterback, and won the Jenkins Trophy as the outstanding student-athlete in his graduating year, 1950.
He did his doctorate at the University of Illinois, and returned to Queen's in 1954 to join the faculty, teaching both undergraduate and graduate courses.
Queen's also opened a new and greatly expanded athletics complex in 1971, to meet rising enrollment from baby-boomers who were reaching university age.
Lenard continued to compete very avidly and successfully at golf, bowling, and curling, until suffering a stroke in 2001 at age 80, from which he lost the use of his right side.
This new project was the most complex and most expensive (slated for $230 million) ever undertaken at any Canadian university, and had its groundbreaking ceremony on March 2, 2007.