Nursing Education Benefactor Eleanor Mann Dies

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. - Nursing education benefactor Eleanor Mann of Scottsdale, Ariz., passed away April 26, 2004. In 1996, Mrs. Mann and her husband Herb donated $1 million to endow the Eleanor Mann School of Nursing to honor Mrs. MannÕs unfulfilled desire as a young woman to become a nurse.

Reed Greenwood, dean of the College of Education and Health Professions, expressed the college’s gratitude for Mrs. Mann’s legacy: “The Eleanor Mann School of Nursing is a thriving program that graduates an increasing number of highly qualified professionals each year. Through endowing this school, Mr. and Mrs. Mann made a tremendous contribution to nursing in Arkansas.”

Eleanor Mann was born in Crookston, Minn., on April 6, 1921; grew up in Aberdeen, Wash.; and moved to San Francisco during World War II. She joined TWA as a flight attendant in 1947 because she “wanted to see the world”and retired 32 years later as director of TWA’s flight attendant program.

During a trip to Cairo in 1977, she met her future husband, Herb Mann. After her retirement, she joined her husband in Houston, where he worked for Amoco Oil Co., and later they lived in Denver until his retirement in 1990. They retired to Bella Vista, Ark., where they lived until Mr. Mann’s death in 1998.

The Eleanor Mann School of Nursing offers the Bachelor of Science in Nursing degree. In response to the demand for nurses, the school expanded admissions in fall 2003 to enroll 61 new students, a 74 percent increase from the previous year. Beginning in January 2005 the school will accommodate increased enrollment by accepting entering students twice a year, in both January and August.

The Mann School was the first nursing program in Arkansas to be fully accredited by both the National League for Nursing Accrediting Commission and the Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education.