Alan Roy Manor

Alan Manor died at his home in Ladysmith, Virginia on January 28, 2023, with family by his side. He was born on January 20, 1942 in Plattsburgh, New York to LeRoy and Dolores Manor. The oldest child in a loving and active military family, Al lived in many places when he was young, but always returned to the family homestead in Beekmantown, New York and his beloved grandparents, Walter and Rose Delia Manor. By eleven, Al had hunted boar in Turkey. By thirteen, he had traveled by freighter, unaccompanied by family, across the Atlantic. As a teenager, he drove combines in the wheat fields of rural New Mexico. He was a horseman, sitting astride Apache, Red Bird and many others as coolly and easily as any cowboy. He raced trains at night along dirt roads, with Elvis, Buddy Holly and Chuck Berry singing ahead of a blooming cloud of dust. He favored his hair short and his sideburns long. He was a child of the ‘50s and lived that sensibility all his life. Al was free of pretense and artifice. Given the choice, he’d reach for a bolo. To him, the business of life was not complicated: if a tooth hurt, he pulled it. He cut, raked and baled hay with his grandfather; he milked cows; he shoveled manure, although that word was not in his vocabulary. He could rebuild the carburetor on a lantern in a dark campsite and start a fire with wet wood. He always had a dog. Al did not recite jokes, he painted them in three dimensions. He made us all laugh - his mother especially. He saw no reason to eat liver. Al drank his drinks and smoked his smokes without regret or apology. He was humble and bemused by those who weren’t. He did not suffer fools. Al went to college at SUNY Plattsburgh, a place close to his heart that would set in motion those things that would matter to him throughout the rest of his life. There Al met and married the love of his life, Sally; they were married 38 years before her death in 2002. While still in college, they developed a shared love of the great outdoors, and all things that nature had to offer. Al was an educator: a teacher, principal, and administrator in the country’s premier school district. He earned degrees from SUNY Plattsburgh and Virginia Tech, though his gift was to connect on a personal, and not academic, level. In their retirement years, the love of the outdoors continued as Al and Sal became avid campground hosts, with Assateague Island being their favorite. Their free time involved family and enjoying each other. Al is predeceased by his wife Sally and his parents. He is survived by children, Mark and Anita Krueger (Warren); grandsons, Dillon and Sean Mahaffey; sister, Mary; brother, Dean (Patty); a nephew, two nieces, a grandniece; and other family. A graveside service for Alan will be held Thursday, February 2, 2023 at 2:00 PM at Sunset Memorial Gardens, 3702 Loren Drive, Fredericksburg, Virginia. Fond memories and expressions of sympathy may be shared at www.mullinsthompsonfredericksburg.com for the Manor family.