Obituary of Michael James Leiber

Michael J. Leiber, PhD, passed away suddenly at home of natural causes on Monday, January 13, 2020 at the age of 63.

Mike is survived by his loving wife of eight years, Lana.

He is also survived by his mother Nancy (Bob) Graf, sisters Janet Dent and Virginia (John) McAdams, and by his niece and nephew, Brittany and Justin Dent. He was predeceased by his father, Marvin Leiber, and great grandmother, Josephine Colliver.

Mike was born on November 7, 1956 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin where he spent his early years of schooling. He earned his B.A. in Liberal Arts from Marquette University in 1979 and his M.A. (in 1984) and Ph.D. (in 1989) in Criminal Justice from the State University of New York (SUNY) at Albany. He began his academic career as an Assistant Professor at the University of Northern Iowa in 1989, where he was promoted to Associate Professor in 1995, and Full Professor in 2002. From 2005-2010, he was a faculty member at Virginia Commonwealth University. Since 2010, he was Professor at the University of South Florida and Chair of the Department of Criminology from 2011-2019.

Mike was a distinguished scholar, colleague, and mentor. His scholarly contributions should be best remembered for his desire to see the world become a better, fairer, and more equitable place. His concern for social justice guided his career, where his work focused on minority overrepresentation in the juvenile justice system, juvenile delinquency, and the treatment of disadvantaged youth in juvenile court. He was a very successful academic and widely acknowledged to be an expert in the field.

In his personal life, he was a devoted animal lover to his multiple cats and “fidos”, and maintained a pristine early 1970s Alfa Romeo Spider. Mike was also an avid sports fan, who was always up for a debate over his love for the Green Bay Packers, Milwaukee Brewers and Bucks, and Wisconsin Badgers.

Visitation will be held at Florida Mortuary on Monday, January 20, 2020 between 12:00pm - 2:00pm. The family will be departing for Sunset Gardens Cemetery at 2:00pm. Friends are welcome to accompany the family.

In lieu of flowers, memorial donations can be made to the Humane Society of Tampa Bay.