They had two children, girls Katrina and Diana. They divorced in 1984 after a long and friendly separation. Van Valen then married Virginia Maiorana, and eventually separated from that relationship as well. His last great love, with whom he was engaged to be married, was Towako Katsuno, a Japanese professor of Geriatric Nursing. They met when she came to Chicago to do her PhD. Leigh Van Valen died on October 16, 2010 of pneumonia at St. Mary of Nazareth Hospital Center in Chicago, Illinois. Van Valen had been hospitalized for more than three months from a rare form of fungal pneumonia, complicated by a long-standing but slowly progressing form of leukemia. On the University of Chicago website for the Committee on Conceptual and Historical Studies of Science, Van Valen had written and posted this about himself:  Van Valen's publications include: