Les Pawson was an American marathon runner. Pawson worked in the mills of Rhode Island and for the city of Pawtucket parks department while he was one of the finest road runners in the United States.

Pawson's major competition was provided by John A. Kelley, Ellison Brown, and Gerard Cote

Gérard Côté

Gérard Côté, was a Canadian marathon runner and a four-time winner of the Boston Marathon.Born in Saint-Barnabé-Sud, Quebec, Côté was training to be a boxer when he switched to running marathons. He competed in his first Boston Marathon in 1936 and won the race in 1940, 1942, 1943, and 1948...

. Pawson won the Boston Marathon

Boston Marathon

The Boston Marathon is an annual marathon hosted by the U.S. city of Boston, Massachusetts, on Patriots' Day, the third Monday of April. Begun in 1897 and inspired by the success of the first modern-day marathon competition in the 1896 Summer Olympics, the Boston Marathon is the world's oldest...

in 1933, 1938, and 1941, becoming the second runner to win the race three times.

After his running career, Pawson returned to his daily life in Rhode Island working until he was 75 years old. He died in 1992 at the age of 87. A road race and his former training ground in Rhode Island are named for him.