Dr. Francis S. "Frank" Manning

Frank Manning, 90, passed away last Thursday, May 9, 2024, in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
He is survived by his children, Frank C. Manning and wife Virginia, of Montgomery, Alabama, and Helen Manning Howard and her husband, Tony, of Coppell, Texas, and grandchildren, Laura Howard and Sarah and Parker Primrose. Frank was preceded in death by his wife, Ardis Arnold Manning, and his twin brother, William P. Manning.
He was born on September 16, 1933, in Barbados. While growing up, Frank enjoyed playing cricket and learned to swim and played water polo in the Caribbean Sea. He attended McGill University in Montreal, Quebec, earning a B.Eng. in Chemical Engineering, and then continued his education at Princeton University in Princeton, N.J., earning M.S., A.M., and Ph.D. degrees in Chemical Engineering. He was also a registered Professional Engineer in Oklahoma. Frank became a naturalized U.S. citizen in 1964.
Frank taught engineering at the university level for 59 years before retiring at age 85 in 2018 as Professor Emeritus. From 1959 to 1968, Frank was a Chemical Engineering professor at The Carnegie Institute of Technology (now Carnegie Mellon) and he then joined the University of Tulsa in 1968.
In his 50 years at Tulsa University, Frank endeavored to "put the students first," especially the undergraduates. Frank taught nearly every undergraduate chemical engineering course offered, six different graduate ChE courses, five engineering "core courses," and three Petroleum Refining and Production courses. He served as Department Chair twice, from 1968-76 and 1979-85, and was the A. Paul Buthod Professor of Chemical Engineering from 2013 until his retirement. During his career, Frank advised 51 M.S., 25 Ph.D., and two post-doctoral students, was involved in over 40 research grants or contracts, and published more than 70 publications and three textbooks.
Frank taught numerous industrial short courses on oilfield processing of petroleum in the U.S. and in England, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Kuwait, Norway, Saudi Arabia, Scotland, Singapore, Trinidad, and Venezuela.
Frank was involved in professional societies and in reflection of his dedication to the students, he received numerous teaching awards over the years. He had a great sense of humor that he included in his teaching, and gave people a mischievous grin and a deep, loud belly laugh at his own jokes. He was named Mr. Homecoming at TU in 2016 and was inducted into TU's College of Engineering and Natural Sciences Hall of Fame in 2022.
Frank began weightlifting in his teens and "pumping iron" was a lifelong pastime for him. He enjoyed following West Indies cricket scores on the internet, joined his daughter and son-in-law in cheering for the OU softball and football teams, kept tabs on his granddaughters' activities, read bridge columns, and emailed jokes to friends. Frank loved his pets and was a fan of musicals and Gilbert and Sullivan comic operas.
Following a family burial, a memorial service will be held this Friday, May 17, 2024 at 1 p.m. at TU's Sharp Memorial Chapel, 800 S. Tucker Drive.
In lieu of flowers, Frank requested that donations be made to The University of Tulsa's undergraduate Chemical Engineering programs. A URL has been set up in Frank's memory:
< https://utulsa.edu/give/giving-opportunities/engineering-sciences-giving/dr-manning >.
Moore's Southlawn 918-663-2233 share memories at www.moorefuneral.com