Posted by xxxxxxx on January 28, 2003:

JAMES C. MCMANAWAY, 76 Date: December 2, 2002 Page: C12 Section: Obituary James C. McManaway, a key figure in the efforts in the 1950s and 1960s to build a high school in Ipswich, died Friday in Maryland. He was 76. Mr. McManaway was a native of Clarksburg, W. Va. He attended Phillips Academy in Andover and West Point, where he was a lineman on the Army football team led by the legendary running backs Felix "Doc" Blanchard and Glenn Davis. He graduated in 1948 and served as a lieutenant in the Air Force. In 1951, he went to Harvard Business School. In 1954, he moved with his first wife, Antonia Crosby, now of Peabody, to Ipswich. Mr. McManaway worked as a fund manager for several Boston firms, including Merchants Bank, Fidelity Investments, and Keystone Funds. He maintained a strong interest in sports. A regular touch football player, he was remembered by another earnest player. "Jim was good to us. He curbed his destructive capacity for the benefit of the gentler, willowy types," author John Updike told Mr. McManaway's friend, William Wasserman of Ipswich. Updike added that Mr. McManaway "masked his analytical intelligence behind a jovial, good-fellow demeanor." On the school project in Ipswich, Mr. McManaway chaired the School Building Needs Committee and later the Building Committee. He helped lead the project from 1955 until the high school opened in 1963. Former Building Committee member Nancy Thompson recalled him as "the guiding spirit of that effort." Both Thompson and former state representative John Dolan recounted that Mr. McManaway came to meetings armed with a slide rule. "That was before computers," Thompson said, "but Jim always made the calculations on the spot." Mr. McManaway was the first chairman of the Commuter Rail Committee, which worked to maintain regular rail service to Ipswich when the Newburyport line was dropped in the late 1960s. He leaves his wife of 15 years, Sandra of Chevy Chase, Md.; two daughters, Deborah White of Chevy Chase and Sarah of Haverhill; one son, Michael of Cecilton, Md.; and three grandchildren. Funeral services will be private. A memorial reception will be held at a date to be announced. Copyright 2002 Globe Newspaper Company

admin