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Obituary: Robert Paul Manion, champion of Mt. Washington's young people
Sunday, December 19, 1999 By LaMont Jones, Post-Gazette Staff Writer
Robert Paul Manion devoted many of his 62 years to young people and sports, bringing his two favorite interests together to make the community a better place.
Manion, affectionately addressed by his nickname "Meatball," died Wednesday of pancreatic cancer. A lifelong resident of Mount Washington, he was buried in Calvary Cemetery yesterday following a funeral Mass in St. Mary of the Mount Church.
"This community has lost one helluva good person," said Frank Moreno of Mount Washington, who knew Manion from childhood. "He was the type of guy that every community should have if you want to get your kids off the street."
Energetic and unselfish, Manion spent most of his adult life in volunteer pursuits. In 1963, he organized the J.F.K. Youth Football League, whose participants numbered in the hundreds over the years.
He also organized basketball and hockey leagues that lasted a decade, along with a youth honor guard that performed for 20 years at funerals, parades and Veterans of Foreign Wars conventions.
Manion was a member of the Washington Heights Athletic Association.
He attended St. Mary of the Mount elementary school and high school where, in his senior year, he was the class president. He ran the school's intramural sports program, and, after graduating in 1955, served as a communications chief in the U.S. Army in Germany from 1957 to 1959. He held the rank of staff sergeant at the time of his discharge.
Manion worked for the City Parks and Recreation Department from 1959 to 1966, and then for the National Valve Co. in Lawrenceville until retiring in 1983. He was a member of Steamfitters Union Local 449 for 20 years and was a Democratic committeeman in the city's 19th Ward for the last 10 years..
Manion, who never married, was a friendly guy who would help anyone, Moreno said. "It didn't matter if he knew you or not." Moreno and others said they planned to petition the city to rename Olympic Park on Mount Washington in memory of Manion. A shelter at the park was named after him in 1987 in honor of his commitment to community athletics.
Manion is survived by a brother, Patrick, of Dallas, and nephews Patrick and Mike of Pittsburgh. Brusco-Falvo Funeral Home in Mt. Washington was in charge of arrangements.
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