Early in the morning, on Friday, July 8th, Earl William Mann, Jr., aged 90, passed away at his home in State College surrounded by members of his family.

He was born on September 6th, 1931 in York, Pennsylvania and was preceded in death by his parents, Earl, Sr. & Hazel (nee Swartz) Mann; as well as his brothers, Harry & John, sisters, Gloria Snyder & Betty Breen, and a grandson. He is survived by his younger sister, Suzanne Yinger, and younger brother, Gary. Earl is also survived by his wife of 67 years, Alberta (nee Darr); their 5 children - Marcus, Alexander, Lorraine Stiller, Alissa and Paula - along with their spouses – Lauretta (nee Waddington), Anne Dressen, Lawrence Stiller and Michael Schultz; 10 grandchildren, 7 great-grandchildren, plus many cherished nephews and nieces.

He enlisted in the Army in 1952 and spent two years stationed in Memmingen, Germany, where he as one of his unit's cooks. In December 1954 he married Alberta in York. Upon leaving active military service in 1955, he enrolled in the Pennsylvania State University, with help from the VA Bill, graduating with a Bachelor's degree in 1961 and took a position at the University with the Correspondence Program, the Department of Independent Learning, which was the precursor to the Worldwide Campus. He remained in the Army reserves until 1960. In 1986, he retired from Penn State after 25 years and began a new venture with a cleaning business serving a variety of offices, and businesses, in State College. There was nothing he loved more than making things shiny and vacuuming specks of dirt off the floor.

Although he had not been able to attend in recent years due to Covid, and declining health, he was an active member at the Park Forest Village United Methodist Church, where he and his wife had attended since 1961, joining as members when they moved into their home in the neighborhood that same year. After Sunday services, he liked to go around the nave and turn all the hymnals and books the same direction in each pew, or straighten all of the hangers on the coat racks – one could say there was a bit of OCD involved. He was the church Janitor and also cleaned for the Park Forest Day Nursery (now the Park Forest Preschool) and the Park Forest Montessori School, that were each located at the church, for many years.

He spent countless hours mowing the grass around the church and planted many trees, bushes, and flowers in the grounds, including quite a few of his family's Christmas trees. He also participated in the Men's Group and always made Pork & Sauerkraut for their January meeting. Members of the church will remember him in his red neckties and red socks, unless it was Christmas – then it was always one red and one green sock, to acknowledge the holiday season.

He had a hearty laugh that rang out when he found something particularly amusing and a voice that no matter how quiet he thought he was being, boomed out across a room. You could often catch him whistling a tune while cleaning the church or puttering around the yard, more often than not it was the Wizard of Oz song "If I only had a Brain", a talent passed on to several of his children who often find themselves whistling this tune still. He also employed that whistling skill to call his children home from playing in the neighborhood when they were little, and wherever they were, they knew what those 4 notes meant.

He was a man that loved chocolate, and requested chocolate cake with chocolate icing for any and all occasions. His go-to meal cooking creations were more often than not fried eggs and his own version of Mac & Cheese – always with tomato juice. He also helped to make his father's recipes for beef noodle soup and marshmallow & peanut butter Easter eggs. Although trained as a cook in the Army, he usually left most of the cooking, and baking, to his wife, but enjoyed her chocolate chips cookies, whoopie pies and his beloved chocolate cake the most.

He had an almost encyclopedic memory of old radio and television ads – "Pepsi-Cola hits the spot 12 full ounces that's a lot, twice as much for a nickel too…" comes to mind as well as many show tunes. He had a lifelong love of music and listened to new artists, as well as the old. John Legend's "All of Me" was a recent favorite. Napping became an Olympic worthy event in his life and he loved nothing more than a nap on the living room couch after work. But a folding lounge chair would do, when he was required to venture out of doors to a family reunion and there is likely a photo of him napping at every family reunion going back to the early 1980's.

A trivia buff, he enjoyed movie trivia the most, but was never interested in playing a game using his vast store of knowledge. He was a devotee of television and liked gameshows, PBS, This Old House, movies, super heroes and comic book based fiction – he may have at one point owned the first Superman Comic Book, although it is likely to have been thrown out sometime in the 1940's. A fan of science fiction, he insisted on standing in line downtown to see the first Star Wars movie in 1977, even though the line went around the block and he had every episode of Star Trek, and the various iterations of the series, recorded on tape.

A talented designer, he had done the landscaping around his home, building the stone walls, and designed additions and alterations to the house. He was obsessed with his yard and no one cut grass well enough to suit him, there had to be straight lines, so his children were never allowed to mow the lawn.

He like to see things being built and could often be found "Snoopervising" construction projects on campus and in town. He enjoyed designing things himself and considered pursuing architecture in his younger years. Although that is not the path he ultimately took, he did enjoy working with wood and there are several pieces of furniture and cabinetry he built from cherry, a favorite, that will be cherished by family for generations to come.

They say diamonds are a girl's best friend, but Earl loved diamonds – it was the way they sparkled that caught his eye. He truly enjoyed all jewelry, finding stones other than diamonds worthy of his attention, and preferred rubies to sapphires, because they were red, even though sapphire was his birthstone. Shipwrecks and gold coins were something he found equally fascinating. The Atocha shipwreck found by Mel Fisher was featured in a documentary that he had watched more than once. So, when his children graduated college, they could choose a gold coin – or a class ring.

In lieu of flowers, the family requests that you consider making a donation to the Park Forest Village United Methodist Church at 1833 Park Forest Avenue, State College, PA 16803 or to the Park Forest Preschool, located at the same address, in his honor.

A Celebration of Life Service is planned for Sunday, September 11th, 2022 at 11 o'clock in the morning at the Park Forest Village United Methodist Church. The family encourages you to consider making travel arrangements as soon as possible due to various Penn State activities, including a home football game on Saturday the 10th. There will be a light luncheon, and the opportunity to visit with the family, immediately following the service in the church's community room, known as the Prism.