Michigan City native Carter Hugh Manny Jr., whose time with well-known architects Frank Lloyd Wright and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe led to a successful architectural career that included a hand in the development of O’Hare International Airport, died Wednesday at 98.
Manny, who worked with the Chicago architectural firm of Naess & Murphy until his retirement in 1983, also oversaw or was involved in such other projects as the FBI building in Washington, D.C., and Mercy Hospital, the Richard J. Daley Center and the First National Bank in Chicago.
Growing up in Michigan City, his family was friends with the family of Wright as well as artists such as Grant Wood, who gave Manny a drawing he later donated to the Art Institute of Chicago.
Manny was born Nov. 16, 1918, to Carter Hugh Manny and Ada Gage (Burnes). He attended Harvard University and continued his architectural studies at the Graduate School of Design. World War II intervened and Carter switched to the Harvard Business School, feeling he would be more useful to the country.
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He pursued his architectural studies again after returning to Indiana, during which time he had a short apprenticeship with Wright at Taliesin in 1946, studied with Mies van der Rohe and graduated from the Illinois Institute of Technology in 1948. He began working with Naess & Murphy in 1948.
Manny was president of the Chicago Chapter of the American Institute of Architects, a lifetime member of the Society of Architectural Historians and served on many boards.
A highlight of his career was the circus parade he organized during the installation of the The Flamingo sculpture on the Daley Plaza in Chicago.
Two of his drawings were exhibited in 2013 at the Art Institute of Chicago where some of his scrapbooks on Calder, Chagall and the World’s Fair of 1933 already are included in the collection. Some of his drawings and writings are at the Chicago Historical Society.
He traveled widely to China, Japan and throughout the Americas and Europe.
At age 94, according to his family, Manny was busy raising funds to purchase headstones for colleagues he felt had been overlooked.
He is survived by his wife of 20 years, Maya;Â two children, Elizabeth Manny in Taos, New Mexico, and Carter Manny III in Cumberland, Maine; four stepsons; and eight grandchildren.
He was preceded in death by his first wife of more than 50 years, Mary Alice Kellett.
In lieu of flowers, it is requested donations be made to Hospice by the Bay, 17 E. Sir Francis Drake Blvd., Larkspur, CA 94939 or hospicebythebay.org.
The family also suggests a memorial to any of the following: The Department of Architecture and Design at the Art Institute of Chicago (www.artic.edu/join-and-give/support-museum); The Society of Architectural Historians (www.sah.org/); the LaPorte County Historical Society Museum (www.laportecountyhistory.org/); or the Michigan City Public Library (www.mclib.org/).
To sign a guestbook, visit carlislefh.com.