Marianne Mangan was born the third oldest of ten children in Passaic, New Jersey. When she was four, they moved to Cleveland, Ohio, where her father, James, was the doctor at J&L Steel Mill. Her mother, Patsy was a nurse. Perhaps her many summer vacations back east drew her to an affinity for the shore and New York City.
Throughout her youth, she loved taking pictures and spent many hours in the darkroom. In her senior year of high school her closest photographer friend, Genie Kaiser, died. She was painfully reminded that the little things, done carefully and lovingly, are not little at all. This would lay the groundwork for her desire to become a greater “image finder”.
Marianne then attended the University of Dayton. There she revisited the camera and developed her photography in her many involvements and jobs at UD. Intramural games, intercollegiate sports, and the ever growing Irish Club were among her favorites. She received her B.S. Ed. there in 1981.
Backpacking Europe that summer, she had some adventurous stories. Sleeping on “the Wedding Cake” Monument in Rome, Italy, and Cave Hill in Belfast, Ireland, as well as touring with the captor of the Pope’s attempted assassin were among those.
The next two years Marianne taught at Bishop O’Grady High School in Prince George, British Columbia, Canada. There, she learned to dodge moose in the early morning, snowshoe, ski, play real broom hockey, do rain dances, shoo bears out of her classroom, and look in awe at the Northern Lights. Perhaps most memorable was capsizing a canoe in the Fraser River during spring runoff.
She returned to Cleveland in 1983 and substituted in the Cleveland public schools. After a summer teaching visit to L’Esuela d’Especial in Chimbote, Peru, she finally settled into a long term job at Saint Luke Catholic School in Lakewood, Ohio. She also assisted coaching numerous regional, state final four, and state runner-up high school basketball teams at that time.
Marianne met her husband Patrick, a Cleveland fireman, and was wed in 1990. They honeymooned on Achill Island, Ireland, and Sierra Leone, West Africa. In Sierra Leone they were helicoptered out as a coup developed nearly missing escape.
In January of 1991 she traded her degree for raising their children. With three young children, the family survived a house fire early morning of All Saints’ Day in 1993, bringing her husband to the call. All was lost save their lives and few burnt photographs. The family rebuilt on sight and remains in that house today. Over the next years Marianne worked more on her photography and computer skills, enabling her to convert to a digital process.
Marianne returned to teaching part time in 2003 at Our Lady of Angels elementary school in Cleveland where she taught primary physical education until 2011. She is still partnered with OLA as the executive director of the Cleveland Outdoor Leadership Academy. She finished her master’s degree in Educational Leadership from the University of Dayton and is an adjunct professor at Baldwin Wallace College. Currently she is working on her doctorate.
As an avid freelance photographer Marianne specializes in photojournalistic portraiture and giclee artwork. She developed a web based company mariannemangan.com. She is thrilled to capture moments of essence. “....it is the feeling a picture can evoke which inspires me. Taking images reminds me to be a kind, grateful person, and to see the beauty in those corners of our world that perhaps go unnoticed. It reminds me to serve others and to help them.... letting me visit their souls in trying to reflect their insightful energy.”
Marianne is married to Cleveland Battalion Fire Chief Patrick Mangan. They have five children: Teresa, Grainne, Seamus, Celine, and Aedan, ages 15-20.
