Leo Firm Ingram died Sunday, Jan. 30, 2011, at Central Mississippi Medical Center after a brief illness. Mr. Ingram was born June 24, 1926, in Niagara Falls, N.Y. He was the son of the late John Alva Ingram and Cora Geneva Brodie Ingram.

Mr. Ingram’s family moved to the Ingram family farm near Andalusia, Ala., in 1935. He graduated from Rawls High School and attended Tulane University through the V12 Naval Officer’s Training Program. He received his commission in the Navy from Columbia University’s Midshipman School in New York in 1945. After serving at Pearl Harbor for two years at the end of WWII, he returned to Tulane University and graduated with a degree in physics. Mr. Ingram served as president of Phi Kappa Sigma fraternity at Tulane.

Mr. Ingram moved to Vicksburg in 1948, employed as a technician at the Waterways Experiment Station. He rose to position of chief of the Explosion Effects Division, retiring in 1980 with over 32 years of service. Mr. Ingram was active in professional organizations and was named to the Waterways Experiment Station Gallery of Distinguished Civilian Employees. Active in civic organizations, Mr. Ingram served as president of the YMCA’s Y’s Men’s Club, was a member of the Vicksburg Beautification Commission and was a Boy Scout leader of Troop 105 at First Baptist Church.

He is survived by his wife, Marian Meek Ingram of Vicksburg; two sons, Robert Frank Ingram and Paul Dixon Ingram (Donna), both of Vicksburg; three grandchildren, Margaret Graham Boyd, John Carpenter Ingram and Christopher Leighton Ingram; a great-granddaughter, Bella Margaret Graham Boyd; and one sister, Ruth I. Read of Largo, Fla.

In addition to his parents, he was preceded in death by two brothers, Robert Horace Ingram and Hinton Dixon Ingram, and two sisters, Louise McCoulf and Opal O’Grady.

Funeral services will be at 11 a.m. Wednesday at First Presbyterian Church with the Rev. Tim Brown, pastor, officiating. Burial will be at Cedar Hill Cemetery under the direction of Riles Funeral Home. Visitation will be from 9:30 a.m. Wednesday in Ward Hall of First Presbyterian Church until the hour of the service.

Pallbearers will be Robert Frank Ingram, Paul Dixon Ingram, John Ingram, Christopher Ingram, Keith Waddell, John Bullard, Robert Venable Jr. and Joe Battalio.

Honorary pallbearers will be Jack Stamm, Edley Jones, Don Neumann, Bob Cunny, Don Day, Jim Drake, Gerald Easley, Robert Clement, Dr. Murray Whitaker, Dr. Dan Edney and Dr. David Halinski. In special memory will be the deceased members of Mr. Ingram’s golf group: Dr. L.G. Horn, William Beanland, Dr. Frank McPherson, Murray Pinkston and Dr. Dewey Purser.

Memorials may be made to Vicksburg Catholic School, 1900 Grove St., Vicksburg, MS 39183 or to any youth- related charities.