Jean (Price) Mann attended Iowa Wesleyan to earn her degree in Elementary Education from 1963-1967. In her time as a Tiger, Jean was extremely involved in her campus community. She was a member of Alpha Xi Delta, Student Government, Choir, Student Senate, Women’s Honor Society, Religion Committee as well as being Homecoming Chairman and President of the Student Union Board. While in her various leadership roles, Jean shared that one of her proudest accomplishments was getting a cigarette machine in the Student Union. “But I suppose that isn’t such a good thing these days,” she chuckled.
When asked about her favorite memory from her time on campus, she fondly remembers living in the dorms with friends and spending time together in Sheaffer-Trieschmann Hall. Jean also fondly remembers going to a little lunch restaurant behind S-T Hall called Sarah’s. She said going there and grabbing a bologna sandwich helped soothe her homesickness in her first and second years of college. She also remembers vividly when President Kennedy was assassinated. “They canceled classes and had a service in the Chapel.” Something she remembered that is vastly different from the time when she was in school to now, is that women were always expected to wear dresses and skirts unless the temperature was going to be below zero, or before noon on Saturday mornings.
Jean also fondly recounted meeting her late husband, Roger Mann while at Iowa Wesleyan. Roger was a member of Phi Delta Theta, and Jean says she will never forget the first time she saw him walking out of the Phi Delta house as she was walking in. “I thought, ‘for a redhead, he’s very cute!’” As the story goes, Roger and Jean had a group of mutual friends, two of whom were getting married. The group met up before the wedding to catch up, since they had not seen each other since classes had ended in May. One late night, four of them decided to go for a drive. “When we were going to get in the car, my friend went to get in the back with Roger, but I thought he was cute so I gave her a good shove towards the front seat and went to sit in the back with Roger. The rest is history.” Roger passed away in August 2016 shortly after celebrating their 49th wedding anniversary.
The advice Jean would offer to young alumni, or to people just starting their journey at Iowa Wesleyan would be, “Just be open to trying new things and meeting new people. When I went I didn’t know a soul and I walked out with so many good friends.”
After graduating from Iowa Wesleyan, Jean went on to earn her Master’s Degree from St. Xavier University in Teaching and Leadership. In her career, Jean was a 4th Grade teacher for 30 years. She was inducted into the Wethersfield Academic Hall of Fame in August 2018.
She is currently retired and lives in Galva, IL.