The Pioneer Of Journalism At Miami Dade College Passes Away At 87
When faculty adviser Barbara Garfunkel recruited Raleigh Mann to serve as The Falcon Times’ founding editor-in-chief in 1961, Dade County Junior College—known today as Miami Dade College—served less than 1,500 students.
“The paper was kind of an affirmation that we were legitimate,” Mann would tell The Reporter in an interview nearly 50 years later.
During the paper’s inaugural year, Mann guided a staff of less than 10 writers. They produced 14 issues and fed their curiosity in cramped quarters; the paper’s first office was in a 10 x 10 white-wooden structure with limited resources—three manual typewriters and a darkroom that was originally a restroom.
Despite the meager resources, the feisty publication laid the groundwork for a fertile journalism program that has produced 22 National Pacemakers since then.
The experience also shaped Mann. It served as the genesis of a four-decade-long journalism career that made pit stops at the Miami Herald, the Tampa Bay Times, the Fort Lauderdale News and a professorship at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s Hussman School of Journalism and Media.
“He pretty much set the course of my life,” said Diana D’Abruzzo, one of Mann’s students at UNC who would later work at Politico, the Virginian-Pilot and the Express, a publication of the Washington Post.
Mann’s passion for the craft remained vibrant right up until his final days. On May 19, he died in his sleep from atrial fibrillation in Pittsboro, N.C., leaving a legacy that those who love him say will outlive his time on earth.
“I’ve never seen him give just a little scrap of himself,” said Barbara Beth Woodard, one of Mann’s daughters. “There’s nothing halfway or half-hearted. He’s all the way there.”
Journalism Legacy
Mann was born in Baltimore on August 21, 1934. He remained there until the spring of 1957 when he was diagnosed with juvenile rheumatoid arthritis and his doctor recommended he relocate to a warmer climate.
Once he arrived in Miami, Mann enrolled at what is known today as the North Campus. He pursued an associate’s degree in humanities and steered the coverage of The Falcon Times.
While serving as the editor-in-chief, Mann befriended Betsy Ann Little, an administrative assistant in the President’s Office at North Campus. Their bond developed into a romantic relationship and led to marriage after eight months of dating. The couple tied the knot on August 21, 1962—Mann’s 28th birthday.
In 1963, Mann started taking classes at the University of South Florida. He served as editor-in-chief of the Tampa Bay Times, University of South Florida Campus Edition, before graduating with a bachelor’s degree in political science in 1965.
Mann would spend the next two years as a government reporter in the West Hollywood and Broward County bureaus of the Fort Lauderdale News. By 1967, Mann had started a decade-long tenure at the Miami Herald covering religion, business, real estate, government and the police beat. He wrapped up his last two years at the publication as the Flair section editor—the features section of the paper’s Broward edition—covering dance, music and theater, according to Woodard.
During the 1960s, Mann also became a dad. His oldest daughter Katie was born in 1965, followed by Barbara Beth in 1967 and Evelyn in 1969.
Perhaps it was his jaunt into fatherhood that made teaching young people a natural fit.
In 1978, Mann left Florida and became a journalism lecturer at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
During his tenure, Mann served as faculty adviser to the student chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists and a member of the American Copy Editors Society and the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication.
Mann’s warm charisma made his students feel at home. Legions of youngsters used his office, which sat across from his classroom until he retired in 2000 as a tenured professor, as a safe haven.
“He was a happy person,” said April Jones Prince, one of the students who sought refuge in his office after she moved from Minnesota to study at UNC and earned a bachelor’s degree in journalism and mass communications in 1997. “The kind of person that just made you feel like home away from home.”
Happy Retirement
During retirement, Mann dedicated his time to his lifelong love for music, theater and writing.
Mann’s interest in music flourished during his teenage years in Baltimore. He was part of the youth choir at Govans-Boundary United Methodist Church and played the trombone for the marching band at Baltimore City College. Mann also formed his own group, Raleigh Mann and his Orchestra; they performed at proms and dances throughout the city.
In North Carolina, he became a member of the Choral Society of Durham, Voices: the Chapel Hill Chorus and the United Voices of Praise gospel choir.
“His religion came very deeply out of his heart,” Woodard said, referencing how choral music allowed her father to connect with his religion.
From 1995 to 2007, Mann was part of the United Voices of Praise, a biracial gospel choir that conducted several international tours in faraway places like Germany, Scotland and Hawaii.
But Mann never stopped writing. In 2013, he published a 150-page memoir, Jumping With Mixed Feelings: A Family Memoir. Three years later, he started a blog, Raleigh’s Musings, dispensing stories about his life experiences, chatting about current events and sharing anecdotes about loved ones.
Most recently, Mann was hard at work on a novel based on his upbringing in Baltimore.
“He said that you never know what will be your last moment, so just keep pouring out love to those you love. Just keep telling them and showing them and surrounding them with it every moment,” Woodard said. “That’s how he lived and that’s how he died.”
Some of the biographical information in this article was extracted from Raleigh Mann’s memoir, Jumping with Mixed Feelings: A Family Memoir.
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