Eleventh Provincial of Region, 1985-1991
Robert E. Manning was born June 15, 1937 to Denis F. and Mary Manning in Somerville, MA. After graduating from high school, he entered the Society on July 30, 1954 at Shadowbrook, Lenox, MA for two years of novitiate study. He attended Weston College, Weston, MA for philosophy studies from 1959 until 1961, then was assigned to teach at Baghdad College, Baghdad, Iraq from 1961 until 1964. He returned to Weston College to study theology from 1964 until 1968. He was ordained at Boston College, MA on June 10, 1967. From 1968 until 1970, he studied theology at Princeton Theological School, Princeton, NJ and then taught theology at the College of the Holy Cross, Worcester, MA from 1970 until 1971, while also undertaking private studies. He was chaplain and visiting lecturer in the Religious Studies Department at the College of the Holy Cross from 1971 until 1983 where he was named rector in 1983.
In 1985, he was appointed Provincial of the New England Province, serving until 1991. He was then named rector at the Jesuit School of Theology at Berkeley, CA in 1991, staying in that position until 1995. From 1996 to 2007, he was the President of the Weston School of Theology in Cambridge, MA. He died October 6, 2008 at Campion Center in Weston, MA.