Class of 1954

Charles Francis Grattan, 72, of Oceanside died Oct. 30. He was born in Dunlo, Pa., and was a facilities manager for Cubic Communications Inc. He served in the Army during the Vietnam War.

Survivors include his wife, Patricia Grattan; sons, Gregory and Charles Jr.; stepdaughter, Dana Cross; sisters, Beverly Kearns and Mary Wright; six grandchildren; and seven great-grandchildren.

Mass: 10 a.m. tomorrow, St. Francis Catholic Church, 525 W. Vista Way, Vista.

Interment: 1:30 p.m. tomorrow, Riverside National Cemetery, 22495 Van Buren Blvd., Riverside.

Arrangements: Allen Bros. Vista Mortuary.

—San Diego Union-Tribune, November 6, 2007, Edition F, Page B-6

Laurel Mannen, 65 artist honored for service to UCSD

From fibers to graphics, Laurel J. Mannen explored the world of art with the same fervor that led her to collect antique furniture as a teen-ager.

She became proficient enough in fiber techniques to teach continuing education classes for the San Diego Community College District and at private art shops.

Later, while employed as coordinator of the Program in Judaic Studies at UCSD, she applied her artistic talents to signs and decorations in the school’s various departments.

Ms. Mannen, a native San Diegan, died of respiratory failure Sept. 16 at San Diego Hospice. She was 65.

Not long after accepting a new post at the University of California San Diego as artist for the dean of arts and humanities in the late 1990s, she was disabled by shingles and emphysema.

Her contributions to UCSD, including 13 years in the Judaic Studies program, earned her a distinguished service award in 1997.

At UCSD, Ms. Mannen designed promotional fliers, decorated conference rooms and created signage for such departments as literature, history and humanities. She also took on free-lance graphics projects.

As a child, Ms. Mannen lived in La Mesa, where her father, Paul Mannen, operated a wholesale egg business. After he became general manager in 1949 of the Del Mar Fair, she worked there during summers. Her jobs at the fair and baby sitting enabled her to invest in early American antique furniture — including a rocking chair, a dry wooden sink and four-poster bed.

She donated some of the items, including the bed, to Casa de Estudillo in Old Town State Park in the late 1960s. “She had five children and she was afraid we might damage some of the furniture,” said her daughter Anne Rotzler of La Jolla. “So she gave some of it up or sold it, but she held onto a lot of it, too.”

Ms. Mannen graduated from San Dieguito High School. She went on to attend Stephens College in Columbia, Mo., and studied art at the Chouinard Institute in Los Angeles. She later studied psychology at International College in Los Angeles.

As a young woman, she worked as a flight attendant for United Airlines. After her marriage to Tom Stoup, she served as president in the 1960s of the San Diego Junior Chamber of Commerce Wives Club. The couple were divorced in 1980.

While raising a family, Ms. Mannen volunteered at Grant Elementary School in Mission Hills, where she created a learning center, complete with a library and art lessons, Rotzler said.

In the 1970s, while teaching various fiber techniques, she served as president of the Creative Weavers Guild of San Diego.

In 1996, Ms. Mannen was among the founding members of the Women’s History Reclamation Project, which honors the contributions of women with lectures, outreach programs, archival collections, oral histories and a research library.

After meeting the late Mary Maschal, who started the reclamation project, Ms. Mannen embraced the cause of feminism. “She became passionate about it toward the end of her life,” Rotzler said.

Survivors besides her daughter Anne include daughters Susan Medina of San Diego and Elizabeth Hardesty of Dixon; sons John Stoup of San Diego and Peter Stoup of Madison, Wis.; brother, Paul T. Mannen Jr. of Dallas, Ore.; and two granddaughters.

Services were held Sept. 23 at San Diego Hospice. Donations are requested to San Diego Hospice.

—San Diego Union-Tribune, published October 2, 2001