Leonard Raymond Nelligan Ashley was born on December 5, 1928, in Miami, Florida.

He is an American English language educator and writer. He came to McGill University at age 15 and earned his B. A. (English) in 1949 and his M. A. in 1950. In 1956, he earned his Ph.D. at Princeton University. Ashley became an instructor at the University of Utah, Salt Lake City (1953-1956) and the University of Rochester, New York (1958-1961). He was an instructor at Brooklyn College, City University of New York (1961-1965), an assistant professor (1965-1968), associate professor (1968-1971), Professor of English (1972-1995) and Professor Emeritus (1995- ). He was also a part-time faculty member at the New School for Social Research, New York City (1962-1972). Aslley served as secretary of the International Linguistic Society (1980-1982) and later was on its board. He was vice president of Amici Linguarum and participated in the International Conferences on Onomastic Sciences in Europe. Ashley was a member of the United States Board on Geographical Names and a President Emeritus of The American Society of Geolinguistics. Aside from more traditional works on English drama, fiction, poetry, and books on onomastics and geolinguistics, he is also known for his series of popular dictionaries of the occult. He also served on the editorial board of various academic journals in the US and abroad. In 1998, he received the honorary Doctor of Humane Letters from Columbia Theological Seminary. Ashley has been listed as a noteworthy English language educator by Marquis Who's Who.