COLLEGE OF BUSINESS MASTER BUILDER

In the history of every successful institution there is an individual whose unique contributions literally transform that organization. For the Robinson College of Business and Georgia State University, that individual was George Emanuel Manners.

Dr. Manners died November 6, 2000. He was associated with Georgia State from his days as a student in the early 1930s. He served as dean of the School of Business Administration from 1947 to 1969 and later as assistant vice president, associate vice president and Regents' Professor until he retired in 1977. Since the day he became dean in September 1947, Dr. Manners was set on raising the College of Business from a small, unaccredited institution to a fully accredited school with world-class faculty.

"He will never get all the credit he deserves, but he was the only one with the vision to turn the business school around," said Dr. Kenneth Black Jr, another dean emeritus of the College. "Only Dr. Manners had the drive to accomplish all he did."

He helped take the university from a small fledging institution offering one undergraduate degree to what it is today - a major research university with an overall enrollment of 26,000 students, 8,000 of whom are in the Robinson College. And he did it with a unique blend of leadership, wisdom and courage honed over a lifetime of service to his country, community and higher education.

Panayiotis Zotos, senior vice president of the International Bank of Miami, remembers his first day at Georgia State when Dr Manners sought him out and conversed with him in his native Greek. "I feel very fortunate and blessed to have met Dr Manners. For the next 33 years, he was my teacher, mentor and advisor. First and foremost he quickly earned the same respect, admiration and love that I have for my own father."

Dr. Manners was born in New York in 19 10, the son of Greek immigrants. The family moved to Savannah when he was a child. He used the English translation of the family name of Mamalakis. As a young man, he studied opera and classical music, thinking he might become a singer This early training was useful when Dr. Manners helped his brother, Nick Mamalakis, persuade the widow of legendary Savannah lyricist Johnny Mercer to donate to the school Mercer's personal papers, pictures and an Oscar he won for Moon River, according to Manners' widow, Claire Gibson Manners.