Tinkerbelle - Robert Manry

TINKERBELLE
The ROBERT MANRY PROJECT
The Man – Remembering Robert Manry
Life of a Dream – A few biographical notes on the life of Bob Manry…
Robert Neal Manry was born 2 June 1918, high in the Himalayas at Landour, India. He was the first of four children of Dr. James C.
and Margaret Manry, and was soon followed by brother John and sisters Dorothy and Louise.
The family lived most of the year in Allahabad, Uttar Pradesh, where his father, a Presbyterian missionary, taught philosophy at
Ewing College.
His earliest sailing adventures took place on the nearby Jumna River. He was an active child, and early on, showed an interest in many
things, including animals, adventure and the arts. While at high school, he helped organize the Drama Club. One early role was as a
pirate in “Treasure Island” where he appeared with a parrot on his shoulder. Although he apparently had never tried to teach the bird
to speak, in the midst of a scene, the parrot began calling out, “Robert Manry! Robert Manry!”
In 1936 he left India to attend university in the United States, first stopping in Guangzhou (Canton), China, where he spent a semester
at Lingnan University.
He departed China on 14 July 1937, the day before the Japanese attack at the Marco Polo Bridge near Beijing. That autumn he
enrolled at Antioch College in Yellow Springs, Ohio.
During World War 2, Robert initially refused conscription, as a Conscientious Objector, and was jailed. Eventually he did serve, as a
photographer, with the U.S. Army in Europe.
He returned to Antioch College after the war, and received a degree in Political Science in 1948. According to his daughter, Robin, he
was briefly married after graduating from Antioch.