Roger E. Mann ’70, MAT ’72
Roger E. Mann ’70, MAT ’72 passed away peacefully on October 19, 2022.
He is survived by his wife of 25 years Tessa Tilden-Smith, a daughter Tanya Mann (Jeff), a son Thor (Amy), and five grandchildren (Anna, Sebastian, Julian, Stella, and Sanna), his brother Todd (Jane), niece Jamie (Rob), and dear cousins and friends.
Roger was born into a secular Jewish family in the suburbs of New York City. He enjoyed the big city experience and developed a love for the Brooklyn Dodgers. In his teenage years, he engaged in civil rights activism, and managed his friends’ rock band, before heading off to college at Wesleyan in Connecticut.
Inspired by his intrepid parents and his own sense of adventure and service, he left Wesleyan for Friends World College, and in 1968, he arrived in Kenya, where he began a 15-year off and on love affair with East Africa. He returned to Wesleyan for a Masters in African History. In the early 1970s, he was involved in Vietnam war protests, and worked as an asparagus farmer, and as a journalist, in Vermont and West Virginia. He then returned to Africa, to Zambia to teach secondary school. Over the next few years, he served as a correspondent for the Washington Post, NPR, and High Times, and had his son with a Swedish nurse. As the 70s ended, he moved his family to London, where his daughter was born, and then to Tanzania, teaching Danish development volunteers how to thrive while living in African villages.
Looking for a different type of adventure, he returned to the U.S. and got an MBA from Yale. He then began a business career in the Washington D.C. area, including projects such as management consulting, a water storage company, real estate investing, and a sandwich cafe. His last and most enduring venture was Care-Free Pools in Naples.
In 2000, he and Tessa had moved to Naples to be closer to his parents. He delighted in tennis, wildlife sightings, beer talks, blues festivals, alumni meetings, lively discussions of current affairs, and evangelizing for electric cars. He loved international travel as well as local getaways, and frequently visited with his grandchildren, enjoying with them time in nature, riding roller coasters, and entertaining them with stories of his varied experiences.
In retirement, he continued his civic service by working for the 2020 census and volunteering in the foster care system. His “Done” files included: found a forever partner, visited India, trekked in Nepal, owned a business, saw the Redwoods, worked in Africa, farmed, toured the Galapagos, improved at tennis, and celebrated Tessa’s 70th birthday with her family in Kent.
His lifelong courageous authenticity, steadfast beliefs, and strong will guided all his actions, including his clarity and decisiveness in his last week to return to Naples, cast his ballot, and donate his body to science.
In lieu of flowers, kindly consider a donation to the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society (www.lls.org).