Norman M. Mann M.D.

1921 - 2022

Norman M. Mann, M.D., z"l, died peacefully at home in West Hartford on Wednesday, Sept. 14, surrounded by family and caregivers. He was 101. The eldest son of the late Florence (Tulin) and Nathan Mann, he was predeceased by his beloved wife of 75 years, Denese Berg Mann. He is survived by his children, Karen Mann, Roselle Mann, Cynthia Mann (Brian Acker), and Jonathan Mann (Michal), and his grandchildren: Alexandra and Zoe Mann-Weiner, Noa Mann Falik, Etan, Leeanne, Yossi and Ya'akov Mann, Emily Falik and Adam Acker. He was predeceased by his brother, Sheldon, and brothers-in-law, Gerald and Elliott Berg. He also leaves two sisters-in-law, Elayne and Sharon Berg, beloved nieces, nephews and cousins, and Lee Weiner, Tom Falik, Ken Jaffe and David, Cindy and Antonio Gerber. Norman was born April 8, 1921 and grew up in Hartford, the son of striving immigrants who ran a small grocery store and instilled in their sons a tireless work ethic. Norman was always studious and was passionate about world affairs from the start. At his 1938 graduation ceremony from Bulkeley High School, he gave an address in the Bushnell Theater in which he made a dramatic call for U.S. interventionism in the face of the then-European conflict. He was surprised to draw a standing ovation, a gratifying and memorable moment for him. Norman went on to graduate from Yale University in 1942 and Downstate Medical Center (Long Island, NY) in 1945. In his last two years of medical school, he took part in the Army Specialized Training Program. It was during his residency in 1947 at Sinai Hospital in Baltimore that he met his wife, Denese, a Baltimore native who was the love of his life. They moved back to the Hartford area where they started their family and Norman had a busy private practice as an internist for 40 years. He was sought after for his diagnostic skills, his warm and caring bedside manner and his utter devotion to his patients. He was on the staff of Mt. Sinai, St. Francis and Hartford Hospitals, and served as chief of medicine at Mt. Sinai. He loved teaching and mentoring medical residents. Norman left his private practice in 1988 and moved to Baltimore to work with the Johns Hopkins Medical Services Corporation, seeing patients and teaching residents, medical students and nurses. He was on staff at the Francis Scott Key Hospital and the courtesy staff at the Johns Hopkins Hospital. He returned to Hartford in 1993 and worked for the next 18 years at the Taste and Smell Center of the Connecticut Chemosensory Clinical Research Center at the University of Connecticut Health Center in Farmington. He was an assistant professor in the Department of Medicine at the UConn Health Center and was the medical director for the Taste and Smell Center beginning in 1999. Norman was very Jewish-minded and a passionate lover of Israel. He and Denese were among the founding members of Beth El Temple, where they could be found every Shabbat before Covid and to whose community he was deeply attached, and he contributed to myriad Jewish causes. In earlier years, he was a particularly tenacious solicitor of doctors' contributions for Israel through the Hartford Jewish Federation. He was also a lover of theater, music, cultural life, politics and golf, and he was a master story-teller, with an impeccable sense of comic timing. Above all, he loved life and lived it with gusto, and he loved people; he had an unflagging curiosity about everyone he encountered and a deep interest in their stories. Norman published many articles over the years, including medical pieces in the Journal of American Medical Association, the Cleveland Clinic Journal of Medicine, UptoDate, a clinical research tool for doctors, Hadassah Magazine and the Connecticut Jewish Ledger. Norman was dedicated to doing good, to ethical conduct and to serving others. He was a fiercely devoted husband, brother, father, grandfather, uncle and friend. The family extends its deepest gratitude to Norman's extraordinary, devoted and loving caregivers: Gloria DaCunha, Pam Elkey, Joyce Woma, Dolly Burges and Maria Linhares. A graveside funeral service with military honor, with Rabbi James Rosen officiating, will be held on Friday, Sept. 16 at 11:30 a.m., at the Beth El Temple Cemetery, 51 Jackson St., Avon. The family will receive guests at a meal of consolation immediately following the funeral at Beth El Temple, 2626 Albany Ave., West Hartford. Shiva will be on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday evenings at 1 Hamilton Heights Dr. in West Hartford from 7-8:30 PM with a service at 7:30 PM. Contributions may be made to the Denese and Norman Mann Family Fund of the Jewish Community Foundation of Greater Hartford, Beth El Temple Chai Society, or Magevet, a Hebrew acapella group at the Joseph Slifka Center for Jewish Life at Yale. May Norman's memory be a source of strength and blessing. Funeral arrangements provided by Hebrew Funeral Association, West Hartford.