Kite Personalities - Leland Toy

In the Middle Ages, an apprentice went traveling to finish his studies. After working with experts in other countries, he returned home to set up his own shop. He was now a journeyman . Lee Toy accomplished a modern-day version of this tradition by going kite vagabonding on his motorcycle in 1982. He called the cycle “The Snail.” “It was my Winnebago on two wheels.” Wandering across the U.S. for eighteen months, Toy visited every kite person (Rogallo, Jalbert, Garber) and festival (the AKA conventions in Detroit and Columbus) he could, soaking up knowledge and making friends as he went. He even garnered a measure of fame when a Virginia public television station had him do a six-part series on kites, accompanied by a booklet he wrote titled Flight Patterns, and then circulated the show nationally. Toy returned home to California an expert, a journeyman. He had accomplished an epic trip unique perhaps in American kite annals.

Born in California and raised there and in Wisconsin, Toy made kites from age ten on. But it wasn't until after he took an architectural design degree at California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo that he discovered the inspiring kite scene at San Francisco's Marina Green, home base to experts. Toy soon was competing and, having an organizational bent, helping to write competition rules and run tournaments. Next came a newsletter titled Kite Flyer News. “It was a down-home production,” he said. “But because there wasn't much kite news available then, it started to circulate nationally. A subscription cost $5. When one came in, I went right down to the Doggie Diner—the $5 was dinner.”

Following his kite pilgrimage, Toy resumed the series of engineering jobs that sup­ ported him. But he got enough invitations to hold workshops and attend festivals and found sufficient demand for the kites (many of them fighters) that he was making to take up kiting full-time. One of the first contemporary kite makers to use ripstop, tyvek ™, and paper with equal dedication, he never looked back. Moving to the Southwest, Toy got his largest boost when hired to run an annual kite festival at Reno, Nevada, which featured a fly-off between gambling casino teams of large Toy-made rokkaku kites. Toy's nominations for top kite makers reflected a special interest of his. “I enjoy inventiveness. I like people who apply the skills they've learned in their professions to their kites.” A nominee was retired judge Tom Caldwell of San Mateo. “He's inventive, a tinkerer. He flies for pure fun.” Another was Neil Thorburn of San Jose, “an old-timer whose paste and paper work is very functional. It's really folk art.” What lay ahead for Lee Toy himself? "Quad-line stunt kite flying—it’s intriguing."

Lee passed away of AIDS in 1991. A section for The National AlDS Quilt project was made and donated by his friends to honor him. The kite community still misses him terribly.

Adapted from an article in 1991 Kite Pin Invitational, a Drachen Foundation publication (1995)