David Joseph Mangusso

1940 - 2018

David Joseph Mangusso, 78, passed away peacefully in his sleep on Nov. 30, 2018, at his home in Fairbanks as a result of congestive heart failure. He was born Sept. 9, 1940, in Denver, Colorado, the oldest of four sons born to Roxy George Mangusso and Marianne Kathryn Notch Mangusso. David graduated from Arvada High School, Arvada, Colorado, where he was president of the Latin Club. He then attended the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque on a music scholarship. At UNM he earned bachelor's and master's degrees in education. There he also met Mary Childers, and they married in 1963.
David learned to play the bassoon in high school and played in the band at the University of New Mexico. During his senior year in college, he served as the drum major for the UNM marching band. While in college he also occasionally played with the Santa Fe, New Mexico, Opera orchestra and after coming to Alaska in 1966 he played in the Fairbanks Symphony Orchestra for three years. Music remained important to him for the rest of his life. He enjoyed playing for many years with the Fairbanks Community Band. Until deteriorating health prevented it, he attended all Fairbanks Symphony concerts and all productions staged by Opera Fairbanks.
Professionally, David was an educator. After graduating from college, he taught junior high school for three years in Albuquerque. Following a visit to Alaska in 1965, he began looking for a job in the state, and the next year he came to Fairbanks as Head of Student Housing at the University of Alaska, then the only university in the state. During the Fairbanks flood of 1967 his office became the headquarters for handling the needs of more than 8,000 people and an uncounted number of their pets who sought refuge on the campus. When calm returned, he began to team-teach education courses. After three years he left Alaska to earn a doctorate in education with an emphasis in guidance and counseling at Texas Tech University in Lubbock, Texas. In 1973 he returned to Fairbanks, where he taught at the university for several years and then moved into the public school system, working as a guidance counselor at North Pole Junior High School and later at Tanana Middle School. He retired from the Fairbanks North Star Borough School District in 2004.
David loved sports, although he was more often a spectator than a participant. However, in the late 1960s, he did pitch for a slow-pitch softball team sponsored by a Fairbanks Chevron station. He delighted in confusing batters with his wicked knuckleball. As a spectator he regularly attended Alaska Goldpanner games. He also enjoyed watching the Denver Broncos on television and became a longtime, ever-hopeful fan of the Seattle Mariners.
David is survived by his wife Mary, of Fairbanks; his brothers Edward, of Arvada, Colorado, and John, of Douglas, Alaska; three nephews (Charles II, Clinton and Curtis); and four nieces (Tami, Christi, Anne, and Genoa). He was preceded in death by his parents, his younger brother Charles and his oldest nephew Todd.
Memorial contributions may be made to the American Heart Association, PO Box 742030, Los Angeles, California, 90074-2030.