Leslie (Les) Burch grew up in Western Massachusetts.  He received his BA in Social Science from Colgate University in 1954.  He was a graduate fellow at Colgate and completed his MA in Geography.

While completing his military obligation in Germany, he learned of the overseas dependent schools.  After returning to the US, he applied for a position with the Air Force schools, and was assigned to set up and administer a high school dormitory in Ankara, Turkey in 1960.  In 1961, he chose to teach and was assigned to Molesworth, England, where he met his wife, Carol, who taught at nearby Alconbury.  Further teaching assignments were in Libya, Germany and England.  In 1967, he became Assistant Principal at Chicksands, England.  He then became dormitory administrator at Lakenheath HS from 1968-1970.  From 1970 he held principal-ships in Bad Nauheim, Illesheim, Heilbronn, and Sembach in Germany, Harrogate, England and Madrid, Spain.  In 1987, he moved to Japan, where he was coordinating principal for the Zama-Atsugi Complex Schools.  

During his tenure in Europe, he was elected two terms as President of the Overseas Chapter of the Federal Managers' Association.  Les was appointed by Secretary of Education Terrence BEll to a national committee on education of overseas students.  He served on several NCA accreditation teams.  Les was an I/D/E/A Kettering Foundation Fellow, and a NAESP Fellow.  In Japan, Les was awarded the Commander's Award for Public Service and the Commander's Award for Civilian Service by the US Army Japan/IX Corps for his promotion of excellent Japanese-American relations as well as developing positive school-community programs.

In 1990, Les retired from government service.  Initially, he and Carol lived in Northeast Tennessee, where he was head of a private school.  In 1995, they moved to Fort Collins, Colorado.  Les continues to teach Geography at AIMS College.  Both he and Carol have been active members of AOSHS, serving as Representatives of the old Region 6.  In 2002, Les volunteered to compile a comprehensive list of overseas schools American Schools.  An initial list of over 500 DOD Schools was made available to attendees at the DODDS XV Reunion in Atlanta.

Les and Carol's three daughters were born overseas.  They graduated form the DoDDS schools and returned to the US where they completed degrees in the colleges of their choice.