John Manos
Chief Steward

©

John P. Manos, 75, passed away on April 6, 2003, in West Palm Beach, Florida, after a brief illness.

Born January 10, 1928, in Westfield, MA, he was in the U.S. Marine Corps, U.S. Army Reserve and U.S. Merchant Marine, serving in the North Atlantic during World War II.

John was a tool and die maker in Westfield, MA.

He was a lifetime member of the China Marine Association, Chief Steward of Project Liberty Ship S.S. JOHN W. BROWN, a member of the Historic Naval Ship Association, U.S. Merchant Marine Veterans, an honorary member of the S.S. JOHN W. BROWN Alumni Association, and a member of the Nobles of the Mystic Shrine, Melha Temple.

He is survived by daughter, Deborah Guletsky of Wakefield, MA; son, John C. of Laurel, MD; daughter, Jeanne Manos of Westfield, MA; son, Raymond of Westfield, MA; son, Terry P. of Westfield, MA; and brother, Paul of Laurel, MD; also survived by 11 grandchildren and 3 great-grand-children.

JOHN PAUL MANOS. FORMER CHIEF STEWARD, DIES AT 75

By Ernest F. Imhoff

His old troop ship HENRY GIBBINS was never like this, said John Paul Manos, as SS JOHN W. BROWN became a floating set on Lake Ontario for the ABC movie "Haven" about World War II Jewish refugees coming to America.

Cavorting on deck in the summer of 2000 were some weird sights: multi-colored hair styles, short shorts, movie-makers yelling gobbledegook and guys painting chocolate goo over haze gray so the Brown, playing the 1944 GIBBINS, would look real rusty.

"I was on the HENRY GIBBINS on the Europe run," said Manos. "We had troops aboard. I wasn't there when the GIBBINS took the 1,000 refugees from Italy to the United States during the war. The soldiers would be amazed at this."

But that was a half century ago. Manos shrugged and went back to work as the BROWN's chief steward under whose direction more than 12,000 meals would be served to the crew on her Great Lakes 2000 voyage of three and a half months.

"Some swear by us, some swear at us," cracked Manos, whose hard-working galley gang served up 180 meals a day on time and won many plaudits. There were the few inevitable seamen who felt an obligation to critique the food with vinegar.

It was Manos' last tour on the all-volunteer BROWN. After some six years as galley czar, he settled back in full retirement at his home in West Palm Beach, Florida.

On April 6, 2003, Manos died at age 75 at the Hospice of Palm Beach County. A month earlier, on March 2, he complained of being ill when out to dinner with his brother and sister-in-law, Paul and Nancy, visiting from Laurel, Md. He went to bed early. The next morning his brother found him unconscious in his bedroom. He was taken to a hospital where he lapsed into a coma.

"Jack--we always called him Jack--loved the ship," said Paul's wife Nancy, who with her husband is also a BROWN member. "He was a steward on ships in the merchant marine and also loved to cook at home, especially barbecue."

John and Paul, three years older, grew up in Westfield, MA, in poor circumstances that often kept the boys apart. After some high schooling, Jack went to sea at 16 on the North Atlantic run to England and France during World War II. He left Boston on the ARGENTINA on January 15, 1945, and returned to New York on February 18. He sailed on the GEORGE MCCLELLAN from Boston July 20, 1945 and returned to New York September 5.

He later served three years in the U.S. Marine Corps, much of it with a Marine Air Wing in China. Then he returned to the merchant marine for a time. He was a member of the China Marine Association and served in the U.S. Army Reserve. Ashore he earned a bachelor's degree from the state teachers college near his Westfield home.

"Jack and I became close only when we were adults in Massachusetts, and we stayed close," said Paul. "We had lots of common interests. We had motorcycles, visited Greece twice, sailed on Long Island Sound on his sailboat. Jack was a tool and die maker, I was a government programmer."

John retired two years before sending his resume in and joining the BROWN in the 1990s. Capt. Paul J. Esbensen, the master, signed him up.

John and his wife, Theresa, who were divorced after 42 years of marriage, had five children: Deborah Guletsky, Jeanne Manos, Raymond Manos and Terry Manos, all of Massachusetts, and John Charles Manos of Laurel, Md. John and Paul have a half-sister Elena Nordmeyer of Norphlet, Arkansas. Other survivors are 11 grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.

John was an active promoter of the revival of the SS JOHN W. BROWN Alumni Association Alumni. He was made an honorary member when the group reorganized in 1997 under president Ron Schoof, a graduate of the BROWN when it was a New York high school.

Manos' main service to the BROWN was plenty of timely good food, friends said.

"I think John Manos was the best chief steward I ever sailed with," said Herk Esibill, a World War II veteran who met him on the BROWN. Esibill, the ship's purser and secretary, also sailed in the merchant marine during and after the war. Deck seaman Bill Curtis agreed; on Great Lakes 2000 he installed a "Chief Steward" plate on Manos' door.

As for the GIBBINS, it later became a training ship, the EMPIRE STATE IV, at the State University of New York (SUNY) Maritime College at Fort Schuyler, N.Y.