Devoted educator served Catholic school children, inmates
A gifted and deeply devoted educator, John Manear touched countless lives. As a lifelong bachelor, his students — which ran the gamut from prisoners to teenagers — were the center of his world, family and friends said.
“He was revered by his students and they were his life,” said Tim Zugates, director of guidance at Seton LaSalle High School, where Mr. Manear taught English for more than 50 years.
“I can’t tell you how much he was respected by his students and the staff. He was the pillar of our English department,” Mr. Zugates said, speaking of his longtime colleague and friend who also served as English department chair since 1979 and coordinator of English in secondary schools at the Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh from 1975 onward.
Mr. Manear, Shadyside, died June 3 of complications from longterm diabetes. He was 80.
He grew up in Grafton, W.Va., before earning bachelor’s and master’s degrees in English from the Catholic La Salle University in Philadelphia in 1964 and the University of Pittsburgh in 1968.
In 1964, Mr. Manear began teaching English at Seton LaSalle — then South Hills Catholic High School — as a member of the Brothers of the Christian Schools.
“He was a Christian brother, but then he became a lay person,” Mr. Zugates said. “At that time, only Christian brothers taught at the school.”
As a result, Mr. Manear oftaught briefly at other
schools before returning to Seton LaSalle in 1969, when lay people were permitted to teach in the school.
Around the same time, Mr. Manear volunteered for an innovative program to teach inmates at Western Penitentiary.
Mr. Manear — basically a one-man English department at the former prison on the North Side — helped more than 100 inmates earn degrees. He continued teaching at the facility until the program dissolved in 1994.
“John was very disappointed when it ended,” said his nephew, John Mowder, of Grafton, W.Va.
Outside of teaching, Mr. Manear was a well-known member of a host of professional organizations, including the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) and the Catholic Audio- Visual Educators, where he served as executive director.
He was an officer at the NCTE and chaired some of the group’s annual conventions, including those in Pittsburgh in 1993 and 2005.
Mr. Manear also served as president and executive director at the council’s local affiliate, the Western Pennsylvania Council of Teachers of English (WPCTE).
At WPCTE, Mr. Manear organized workshops and conferences, published the organization’s newsletter and maintained its website.
But he was perhaps best known as the coordinator of the group’s annual English festivals, which encompassed more than 70 local schools and thousands of students, said Carol Aten Frow, executive director of the WPCTE.
“The main memory I have of John Manear is what I will miss most about him: the constancy of his leading the English festival,” said Ms. Aten Frow, an English teacher at Belle Vernon Area Middle School. “When students arrive at next year’s events, there will be such a void.”
Funeral arrangements are private.
Memorial contributions are suggested to the Tuition Assistance Program at Seton LaSalle High School.