Paul Francis Leibold, for whom our school is named, was born in 1914. He was a member of Holy Trinity Parish in Dayton, where he served as an altar boy and attended school. According to Sarah Leibold, his great-niece, two Leibold brothers, one being Paul’s father Frank, and the other Sarah’s grandfather, lived in homes next door to each other near Holy Trinity Church (their homes were located in what is now the parking lot of Dayton Main Post Office). Whenever there was an immediate need for Mass servers, the parish staff would holler across the yards or run over and knock on the Leibolds’ doors: between the cousins, they were sure to get four servers quickly! Paul graduated from Chaminade High School, and The University of Dayton. He completed his studies for the priesthood at St. Gregory and Mount St. Mary’s of the West Seminaries in Cincinnati, and was ordained to the priesthood in 1940.

While serving as pastor of St. Louis Parish in Cincinnati, Father Leibold worked in the Archdiocese Chancery, the office which expedites canonical matters, keeps parish records, and helps parishes with civil law issues. He served as Assistant Chancellor and then Chancellor under Archbishop Alter until 1966. In 1958 he was made Auxiliary Bishop of Cincinnati, and eight years later he was named Bishop of Evansville, Indiana. In 1969 Bishop Leibold returned to Cincinnati to become Archbishop.