Deacon Peter J. Manno, 83

Deacon Peter J. Manno, 83, of Dolgeville, died on Sept. 29, at the Siegenthaler Center after a brief illness.

He was born in Mohawk and raised in Frankfort, the son of Joseph P. and Jennie (Calamonaci) Manno. After graduating from high school, Manno attended the Latin American Institute in New York City, where he studied French, Spanish and Italian. He enlisted in the United States Air Force on Sept. 7, 1955 and was honorably discharged on Sept. 6, 1959. He served four years as a Chinese linguist with the USAF Security Service in the Philippines, Taiwan and Texas.

After being discharged, Manno worked for the Bank of America in New York as a translator, while obtaining his bachelor’s in Spanish from The City College of New York and a master’s degree from Hunter College. In 1985, after 18 years as a teacher, dean of students and assistant headmaster at the Highland Prep School in Jamaica Estates, Queens, Manno returned to the Mohawk Valley to teach Spanish, and occasionally Chinese, in the Ilion School District. In 1992, Manno was granted a degree as a Teacher of Spanish from the government of Spain, and in 1993, he received a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Humanities for a summer of studies in California. Manno retired in 1998.

Manno was ordained a deacon in the Roman Catholic Church in Albany in October of 1986. He served faithfully in parishes in Amsterdam, Herkimer, Newport/Middleville and, most recently, in Dolgeville. He was a Fourth Degree Knight of Columbus and served as a volunteer with Hospice, the Homeless and Runaway Youth Program, the Fresh Air Fund, AIDS Community Resources, and on the board of directors of Catholic Family and Community Services of Herkimer County.

Deacon Manno is survived by his three sisters and their husbands, Vivian and John Latella, Josephine and Robert Schmidt and Mary Ann and Nicholas Barbuto; his nephews, Edward Schmidt and his wife, Rachel, Peter Barbuto and his wife, Elizabeth, Mark Barbuto and his wife, Jessica and Matthew Barbuto; his nieces, Deborah Ocasio and her husband, Julio, Denise Latella, Ann Marie Latella and her husband, Joseph, and Lauren Kuzara and her husband, Brian, several beloved great nieces and nephews. From his more than 30 years of teaching, Manno taught hundreds of students whom he considered “his kids” and who remember him as “Don Pedro.”

A Mass of Christian Burial was held on Oct. 14 at St. Joseph’s Church in Dolgeville and internment will be at Mt. Olivet Cemetery. In lieu of flowers, please consider memorials to the Siegenthaler Center, Hospice & Palliative Care Inc., 4277 Middle Settlement Road, New Hartford, N.Y., 13413.