August George Manza

August (Gus) Manza, a life-long resident of Berkeley, died peacefully on May 2, 2022, at Aegis Living in Corte Madera. He was 90 years old. He was the child of Italian immigrant parents; his father was a tailor who ran a tailor shop in San Francisco for many decades. Educated at Berkeley High School and the University of California (class of 1952), Gus was a member of ROTC at Cal, and served in the U.S. Army for three years following his graduation. He would later join the Army Reserves, where he rose to the rank of Colonel, retiring in 1984. Following full-time military service, Gus returned to Cal to attend the Boalt Hall School of Law, then transferring to the School of Public Administration where he received an MPA degree in 1959. He met his future wife, Grace Cunnien, in 1958 and was married in 1960. The couple had three children, Jeff (born 1962), Judy (1963), and Sheryl (1964). Gus worked for a couple of years as the assistant and then acting county manager in Santa Cruz County before returning to the University of California in 1962, where he worked for many years as the head of the Sponsored Projects Office and later as a special assistant to the Chancellor. He retired from Cal in 1991. He and Grace made their home in the Berkeley hills, where Gus would live until moving to assisted living in the last few years of his life. In retirement, he lovingly and patiently provided many years of caring work for his mother’s aging sister Rosalia, who would live to 107 years of age, and later for Grace as she experienced some health issues before her death in 2008. Gus devoured news about current events, enjoyed making investments and following the stock market, and his Church, St. Mary Magdalen’s of Berkeley (where he served as a Catholic lector at weekly services for many years. He was also a passionate follower and season-ticket holder of the Cal Bears football team, enjoying the glory years under Pappy Waldorf in the early 1950s when he was a student, taking Grace on a date to see the Bears play in the 1959 Rose Bowl, and vowing he would live long enough to see them play in the Rose Bowl once more. Unfortunately, he did not live long enough for that pleasure. He is survived by his children Jeff Manza (of New York City), Judy Manza (of Sonoma), and Sheryl Manza (of Navasota, Texas), and four grandchildren: Brian Quealey, Dana and Zoë Hafter-Manza, and Mia Allen. Funeral services will be held at St. Mary Magdalen Church, Berkeley on May 9 at 10:30 a.m.

In lieu of flowers, please consider a donation to the Cal Fund at the University of California-Berkeley (https://give.berkeley.edu/fund/FX0222000?ac=92041) or National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) (https://www.nami.org/Home [nami.org])  or Wounded Warriors (Donate to Veterans | Wounded Warrior Project )

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