Manning Memorial Service will be Tuesday

Memorial services for Harry Manning will be Tuesday at Covenant Presbyterian Church, 40 Ohio Street in Racine.

Manning passed away at 4:45 a.m. Thursday at the VA Medical Center in Milwaukee after battling ALS. According to an announcement from the church, he was surrounded by family and "went gently."

In addition to serving the Village of Mount Pleasant as a trustee since 2008, Manning was also a racecar driver, choosing to get behind the wheel of Mazda Miatas on the Sports Car Club of America circuit.

Here on Patch, two readers talked about their respect and admiration for Manning. From thefirebuilds:

Congratulations on earning your last checker flag, you will be missed. Thanks for all you did for me along my racing career. And for those of you who don't know, Harry was a fast sum-b in a race car, even as he got on in years I had no hope of catching him.

And from rocksteady racer, "Harry helped me get started in racing and I always had the utmost respect for him and appreciated his wisdom."

Manning stopped racing just last summer. A tweet from the SCCA on Aug. 2, 2012 reads, "Harry Manning, retiring from driving this year, waved the green flag to start today's race."

And on the SCCA's website, came this announcement Thursday:

It comes with great sadness to report the passing of Harry Manning this morning.

Harry raced in the SCCA for over 20 years, winning an SCCA Runoffs championship in 2003 in Showroom Stock B, several Runoffs podiums, as well as many, many,  SCCA National Events in SSB and Spec Miata. He has been, and will continue to be a role model to me, on and off the race track.

Harry was active in local government, elected three times and currently held a seat as a village trustee of his hometown.

His wife Mary, son John, daughter Wendy, and two grandchildren will miss him greatly.  Harry lost a very short battle with ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease.

It won't be the same without #92.

Fellow Trustee John Hewitt said he didn't always agree with Manning on issues before the board, but he never doubted that Manning came to meetings more prepared than any other board member.

"He really cared about the village and such integrity," Hewitt said. "We didn't always see things the right way, but I respected him so much because he always did his homework."

He said Manning told him he almost didn't run for re-election in 2012, but a conversation with his grandkids changed his mind.

"I guess one of Harry's grandchildren told him, 'you really like it and you're good at it so you should do it,'" Hewitt said. "That clinched it for him."

Village President James Majdoch told Patch Friday that he does not plan to introduce discussion about appointing someone to fill Manning's seat for the rest of his term. Instead, he'll leave that up to the new board, which will be seated for the April 22 meeting.

"I don't think there's any rush," he said. "I think it should be up to the new president and trustees."

Visitation will be at Covenant Presbyterian Church from 4:00 to 6:30 p.m. Monday and from 10:00 to 10:45 a.m. Tuesday. The memorial service is at 11 a.m. Manning's obituary will run in The Journal Times on Sunday.