Pitchrate | A Mann Among Men by Rose Russell(Toledo Blade 7-6-11)

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Harry Bryer

Harry Bryer is the author of the new biography "Hidden Genius,Frank Mann,The Black Engineer Behind Howard Hughes".

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Grey Forest Press,LLC

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Expert

Published:

09/25/2011 11:08pm
A Mann Among Men by Rose Russell(Toledo Blade 7-6-11)

It’s heartbreaking when a teenage boy finds his girlfriend kissing one of his buddies. When that happened to Frank Mann many years ago, he became suicidal, jumped in his car, and drove away in a reckless frenzy.

He found himself at the old South Main Airport in Houston where he bought a $1 ticket for an airplane ride, intending to jump out of the biplane once it was airborne. But the thrill of that plane ride was a turning point for Mann.

"Forget about girls. This is for me," thought Mann, who developed a love affair for airplanes and flying that helped him play a crucial role in the development of the flight and automotive industries in the early and mid-20th century.

But Mann’s role in aerospace and automobile engineering is not widely known. That’s why Harry Bryer of Oak Harbor, Ohio, has written the book Hidden Genius — Frank Mann, the Black Engineer Behind Howard Hughes. It’s easy to read at just more than 100 pages, and was released this spring by the author under his own publishing company, Grey Forest Press of Oak Harbor.

To be sure, Mann’s contributions to industry have been sparsely chronicled. And as much as his is an amazing story, also marvelous is the shattering of racial barriers between the black genius and the white Bryer brothers who befriended Mann in their home state of Texas.

Telling the story

The Bryer brothers, most notably Mike and Paul — the latter with whom Mann became so inseparable that the engineer put his affairs into his hands — have determined that not another century closes before the world knows that it benefits from Mann’s role in engineering.

Harry Bryer befriended Mann through his brothers. When Harry visited relatives in Texas in the 1980s, he joined his brother for a night out with Mann or for a visit at the engineer’s shop.

Paul was closest to Mann, but Harry felt compelled to write his story. That explains Harry’s description of Paul as the people-person with a photographic memory and himself as a bookworm and studious.

And though the book is short, Harry Bryer, a self-employed construction contractor, said writing it was not easy because he had never written one before. But he remained on task, writing for several hours a day when the construction business was down in the cold months.

"I didn’t spend days with Frank, but I spent months researching him and talking to my brother about him and picking my brother’s brain," he said.

Meeting Hughes
Harry Bryer with his book, ‘Hidden Genius.’ Harry Bryer with his book, ‘Hidden Genius.’ THE BLADE/DAVE ZAPOTOSKY Enlarge | Photo Reprints

Described as the brains behind Hughes, Mann — an aeronautical and aerospace engineer who lived from 1908 to 1992 — received recognition for his role in developing key engineering for automobiles, trains, airplanes, and the space industry. But as with other aspects of black history, confirming some details was difficult. That meant Harry Bryer had to rely on Mann and his records for what they didn’t know.

After falling in love with airplanes at that airport, Mann often went there to watch mechanics, who let him do work. The airport is where Mann met Hughes; it was near Hughes’ father’s tool company and where the Hughes’ family hangared its airplanes.

"Frank and Howard spent many hours together working on various projects," Harry Bryer writes. "Because the white engineers refused to work with a black man, Howard often would dismiss them and bring Frank in."

Mann was a primary civilian trainer for the Tuskegee Airmen, the famed all-black air squadron and because of their friendship, Hughes used his influence with the government to obtain better equipment for the black pilots.

Planes and cars

Mann’s career touched almost every aspect of aviation. The author quotes Mann, also a World War II officer, as stating, "I mostly worked on design plans for aircraft, and I redesigned components to make certain that the aircraft would work properly." He claimed to be the first black pilot to fly passenger planes for a major

Keywords

frank mann, howard hughes, african american history, wwii, automitive design, aircraft design, aerospace, true story, inspirational story
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