Nancy Mann

NANCY BLUMENTAL MANN (1950-2020)

Nancy Blumenthal Mann passed away on October 2, 2020, after a fulfilling life as a spouse and parent, and decades of professional work in the fields of dyslexia education and learning disabilities. She graduated from Bryn Mawr College in the class of 1972, where she was the President of her graduating class and a student (and later Alumnae) Member of the Board of Trustees for several years. In 1972 she married W. Berkeley (Buck) Mann, Jr, whom she met on the first day of college, and with whom she would raise a family during their 48 year marriage.

Between 1973-75, while working as a staff teacher for the Forbush School at the Shepherd and Enoch Pratt Hospital, she earned a Master Of Science Degree at Johns Hopkins University in Learning Disabilities and Communication Disorders. She then began a 45-year career committed to working with children with learning disabilities, and their families. She served first as a resource teacher advising and teaching classroom special education teachers in Hagerstown, Washington County, Maryland, while also serving as a college Instructor in the same field at Hood College in Frederick, Maryland.

After moving to Denver, Colorado with her husband and family, she worked for more than a decade as a learning disabilities specialist on inter-disciplinary medical assessment teams at the Child Development Center of Denver Children's Hospital. In 1995, she was a founding member of Associated Educational Specialists, a learning disabilities evaluation private practice in which she remained active for 25 years. In that work she assisted hundreds of children with learning disabilities and their families to understand and problem-solve their learning challenges. In 2003, she concurrently became Admissions Director of Havern School in Littleton, Colorado, whose learning mission she loved for the difference that it made in the lives of hundreds more students with learning disabilities, and their families. This work for Havern School was in all respects, her "dream job" for more than 15 years.

In pursuits outside of Havern School and her private practice, she loved: time with family; numerous long-term and well-nurtured friendships; countless trips to New Mexico in vintage Volvos; the music of Van Morrison, Aretha, The Grateful Dead, native American flute players, classical cellists, and innumerable others; her husband's cooking and other forms of moral support; daily poetry of others; and the challenges of life itself every day.

In memory of her passion for and commitment to the mission of Havern School, Nancy Mann's family and her sister are making a substantial gift to the school, and request that others whose lives were touched by her kindness, friendship, and work consider making a gift in any amount to Havern School (4000 South Wadsworth Boulevard, Littleton, Colorado 80123; 303-986-4587; www.havernschool.org ) in lieu of flowers or other gestures of remembrance. A celebration of Nancy's life will be held at Havern School as an outdoor event to be announced in the Spring of 2021. Her ashes will be interred at the historic Alvarado Cemetery in Empire, Colorado in a valley at the foot of her beloved mountains.

Nancy Blumenthal Mann's living family includes her husband; adult daughter Dr. Sarah Mann, Ph.D. and her partner Matthew Downs, of Brooklyn, New York; adult son Benjamin Mann; sister Barbara Blumenthal; and brother, Thomas Blumenthal of Denver, Colorado.