Title

Interview with Dr. Hank Mann

Interviewee

Hank Mann, SUNY Buffalo State

Interviewer

Sister Martin Joseph Jones

Recording Date

7-20-1992

Description

Horace Mann was born December 12, 1921. He received his undergraduate degree from Brooklyn College. During WWII he served as a navigator-bombardier aboard B-29 bombers in the Pacific. He flew 35 missions over Japan, earning a Distinguished Flying Cross and Purple Heart.

After the war, Mann was hired by the New York City public schools to teach children with developmental disabilities. He soon realized that there was a need for advanced teacher training in this emerging field and began studying how to best prepare others to teach children with special needs. In 1953, Penn State University granted Mann its first-ever Doctorate in Special Education.

Mann nearly joined the faculty at Boston University before President Harvey Rice of the State University College for Teachers at Buffalo contacted him with the chance to head the college’s fledgling Exceptional Children Education Department. In 1977, the White House tapped him as a delegate on children and youth issues. He retired in 1992 and passed away in 2010.

Collection

SUNY Buffalo State Oral History Project, 1975-1995

File Type

mp3

Audio Length

58:48

Rights

Please refer to our copyright statement for more information.

Streaming Media

Department

Archives & Special Collections Department, E. H. Butler Library

Document Type

Oral History

Recommended Citation

"Interview with Dr. Hank Mann" (1992). SUNY Buffalo State Oral Histories, 1975-1995. Archives & Special Collections Department, E. H. Butler Library, SUNY Buffalo State.
https://digitalcommons.buffalostate.edu/bsc_oral_history/41