David A. Mannis – 50th Reunion Essay

David A. Mannis

Stamford, CT 06903

Damannis@optonline.net

Spouse(s): Nancy Klein (1999)

Child(ren): Hannah and Gillian

Education: Penn Law School

Career: Government, intergovernmental relations, corporate government relations

Avocations: President, Stamford Board of Education

College: Saybrook

Thank you for turning to my page first.

Why 500 words? I can do it in five: I’m fine; glad you asked.

Seriously, what do you want to know? We can skip Yale, I think. Loved it. You did too, or should have. And why don’t we skip law school while we’re at it? A dismal business.

And after? A not-so-terribly-amazing career as a state legislative lobbyist, now some years behind me. I was by choice less visible but much freer and far better paid than the elected officials. An increasingly skilled actor in the same long-running piece of dinner theatre. The course of politics and government, discouraging to some, was and is for me as endlessly entertaining as the histories, or more properly the revenge tragedies. I’ve heard some former English majors read Hamlet every year to stay in touch with the big issues; I just had to fall out of bed every morning. I did get to do some ambitious things on behalf of the City of New York and in health-care reform, but few knew. I met all kinds of remarkable people. And saw, and fell deeply in love with, much of the United States.

I came fairly late to a wonderful marriage, wonderful stepchildren, and a wonderful dog, but now even those achievements seem well in the past. After many decades living in cities, a return to suburban trees in the front yard and wild turkeys in the back woods. Not too long ago, despite a life-long promise NEVER to run for office, I dared myself into local politics and am today a municipal elected official in embattled Connecticut. To paraphrase Tony Montana: I do it for fun.

But what about the challenges of our advancing age? No amount of third-career seminars will change it: some of us are getting a bit older. The background droning of the aching knee and the receding hairline. I’m shorter, apparently. But so what? There’s much to like about being older. People tend to leave me alone. Less time on the basketball court, perhaps, but more time to think. It certainly helps fool people with the illusion of wisdom. To your amazement, if you knew me and happen to remember all my then-evident discontents, I am pretty happy about where things are ending up, even if our wonderful country is in hazard. I wouldn’t say you or I ought be overly impressed with what I’ve gotten done so far. But I can say with confidence—looking ahead to our 50th—I’m eager to hear your story for the price of a drink and to sincerely take delight in your successes whatever they turn out to have been.

At 70 years here’s my takeaway, pace T.S. Eliot:

Part your hair behind.

Dare to eat a peach.

And (definitely) wear the bottoms of your trousers rolled.