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Obituary for John D. Mann: Executive and entrepreneur revitalized West End Community Center

This article first appeared in the St. Louis Beacon, Sept. 21, 2011 - A car accident in 1989 left John Mann, then 23 years old, in a coma for a week. After he recovered enough to go home, doctors were still predicting that his severe brain injury would require him to work in a "sheltered workshop." Instead, he went on to earn an MBA, hold executive positions, start a business, revitalize a community center that provides a safe haven for thousands of St. Louis children and lead the effort to open the city's first charter high school.

Mr. Mann died Monday at his home in Clayton of an inoperable brain tumor that had been diagnosed almost two years ago. He was 45.

The accident had left him with epilepsy, some memory loss and a more deliberative speech pattern, but his mother said his personality remained intact.

"John was still gentle, sweet and courageous," Marylen Mann said.

Funeral services for Mr. Mann will be at 11 a.m., Thursday, Sept. 22, at Central Reform Congregation.

Seeds of Restoration

As he continued to recover, less than three years after his near-fatal accident Mr. Mann became engaged in the work that would ultimately define him.

The Manns' housekeeper, Katie White, who had cared for Mr. Mann when he was a child, asked Marylen Mann for help to repair her grandchildren's community center and keep it open. White said the center needed some plaster and paint.

Mr. Mann accompanied his mother to the West End Community Center.

"We found this utter mess," Marylen Mann recalled. "The gym floor was buckled, the pool unusable, wires hanging down -- it was awful -- and small community groups were trying to function there."

On the spot, Mr. Mann decided that he would help restore the building.

In 1993, he told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch why: "The first time I came (to the center), I saw these little girls twirling around the halls. There was a tutoring class in one room. There was all this activity. I could see the place needed a lot more than a coat of paint. (But) Katie was right. This building needed to be here."

"He said that I was too busy and that he would do it," Marylen Mann said. "I said 'what a good idea,' little thinking that he would be able to accomplish what needed to be done."

But he did.

The center, on Union just north of Delmar, began life as the Young Men's Hebrew Association. Built in the mid-1920s, it had been a grand Jewish mecca that boasted an Olympic-size swimming pool, had hosted national handball tournaments and received a visit from first lady Eleanor Roosevelt. But the YMHA followed its members in the exodus west, and the facility eventually became the property of the city of St. Louis. It first housed a police station, then the deteriorating community center.

Mr. Mann wasn't interested in restoring the building to its former glory; he just wanted to give the community, especially children, a good place to be again.

Their House

He called on a friend to help make it happen.

"John was on a mission, a labor of love, and I was a 'baby lawyer' interested in urban renewal; I was game," said Peter Smith, who met Mr. Mann when he moved here to begin his law career in the early 1990s.

Someone had given Mr. Mann a $50 donation to help with renovations, but he didn't know what to do with it. He sought the counsel of Smith, who admitted he didn't have the slightest idea what to do with the money either. But Smith hit the law books and soon advised Mr. Mann to form a nonprofit organization.

"Lots of steps forward, two steps back and lots of luck became $2 million," Smith said.

But raising money wasn't the first move. First, Smith said, they had to build credibility with the people in the community they hoped to serve. For several years, Mr. Mann patiently spent countless hours in the center meeting with grassroots organizations and talking to anybody he could, including then-Mayor Freeman Bosley Jr. (He once scored coverage for the center's restoration efforts on the CBS morning news during the coveted Thanksgiving holiday season; Bosley appeared in the segment.)

"Had he not done that, we would have been told to go away," Smith said. "People like new things, but people want respect. It was their house and their house was not for sale."

The task was not easy, but Mr. Mann was undaunted; he was in it for the long haul. He told the Post-Dispatch in 1993: "We thrive on rejection. We've had countless phone calls not returned, countless doors slammed in our face.

"And even after the restoration is completed and we have turned the building over to the city, we're not bailing out. So we intend to serve as sort of auxiliary fund-raisers for a while. Ten years. Twenty. ..."

Mr. Mann had founded the West End Community Center Restoration Corp. in 1992; a ribbon-cutting ceremony in 1999 marked the end of major reconstruction. But true to his word, he and Smith maintained a "rainy day" fund and Mr. Mann remained actively involved in the center until two years ago.

But as he was preparing to declare "mission accomplished" at the center, he had been putting more energy into one of the programs that had been housed at the center, Lift for Life Gym.

School Work

The gym, which offers children computer classes and nutritional meals along with the exercise, was among the panoply of services at the center. The gym eventually moved to Cass Avenue and its founder decided to expand his organization to encompass a school. He soon turned to Mr. Mann, whom he'd met at the center.

"John helped start the Lift for Life Academy high school," said Marshall Cohen. "If it wasn't for him, the high school would not exist."

Mr. Mann served as the school's board president and contributed to every aspect of the high school's formation, from planning and implementing the curriculum to strategizing about classrooms and transportation.

The academy, the first charter school in St. Louis, began as a middle school and now has 575 students in grades 6 through 12. It merited a visit from former Secretary of State Colin Powell last April.

"What's fascinating is the impact of one person's involvement," Cohen said. "John's work will help thousands of children over the next decades."

In His DNA

John Douglas Mann was born in St. Louis Dec. 2, 1965, the younger of Norman and Marylen Mann's two sons. After graduating from Clayton High School, he earned a bachelor's degree from Colgate University and an MBA from the Olin School of Business at Washington University.

Mr. Mann's career included work at AT&T in San Antonio and Urban Strategies in St. Louis. Several years ago, he started his own housing redevelopment business, Cobblestone Development. Most recently, he was executive partner at Jacobs International, a manufacturer of furniture for restaurants and hotels.

The Lift for Life Academy dedicated the John D. Mann wing in his honor. He received an outstanding citizenship award from St. Louis and was among the St. Louis Business Journal's 1994 "40 Under 40" when he was 28. While an MBA student at Washington University, he was awarded the 1995 leadership award by the Graduate Business Foundation and he was a graduate of Leadership St. Louis.

His family and friends said Mr. Mann "wore his accomplishments lightly."

Leland Wolff said modesty was part of Mr. Mann's DNA. The two met as preschoolers at Camp Pegnita.

"He was wearing his holster and toy guns; he thought he was Daniel Boone," Wolff laughed, something he did often as he reminisced about his friend. "He looked me right in the eye and we became friends immediately and we never drifted apart.

"Johnny overcame a lot in his life, but he would not want tragedy to be his marker," Wolff continued. "He had a natural grace, elegance and class. He had decency. He was very bright and as sweet as they come -- something you usually don't say about a guy."

Mr. Mann, a Cardinals fan who loved basketball and the wail of the blues, was preceded in death by his father, Norman.

He is survived by his mother, Marylen Mann, the co-founder of OASIS, and his stepfather, Frank Jacobs, the head of Jacobs International, of Clayton.

He is also survived by his wife of 11 years, Bonnie Kottler Mann, a member of the management team at Express Scripts, whom he met on a blind date and married 18 months later, and their daughters, Abigail and Julia.

"He found his soul mate, a really compassionate person," Marylen Mann, said of her daughter-in-law. "And he loved those girls."

Other survivors include his brother Robert (Christina) Mann, of Cambridge, Mass.; his mother- and father-in-law, Stan and Susan Kottler, of St. Louis, and his sister-in-law, Lisa (Travis) Dennis, of Denver.

Visitation will be from 10-11 a.m., with funeral services beginning at 11 a.m., Thursday at Central Reform Congregation, 5020 Waterman Blvd., St. Louis. The family will receive visitors from 4-8 p.m., Thursday and 1-6 p.m., Friday at The Crescent, 155 Carondelet Plaza, in Clayton. Burial is private.

In lieu of flowers, contributions in Mr. Mann's memory would be appreciated to Lift for Life Academy, 1731 South Broadway, St. Louis, Mo. 63104.

Gloria Ross is the head of Okara Communications and the storywriter for AfterWords, an obituary-writing and production service. 

Gloria S. Ross is the head of Okara Communications and AfterWords, an obituary-writing and design service.