Frank Mangan
Historical Summary
Frank Mangan, born in El Paso on October 11, 1921, built a distinguished career as a journalist, advertising professional, publisher, designer, author, and civic leader. Educated at Austin High School, the Texas College of Mines and Metallurgy, and the University of Missouri, he served in the Army Air Corps during World War II before completing a journalism degree, where he also led the School of Journalism student body and earned an advertising scholarship.
After beginning in El Paso advertising in the late 1940s and marrying Judith Peterson, Mangan joined El Paso Natural Gas Company in 1951 and spent twenty-eight years there, including service in public relations, before retiring early in 1979. He then began a second career with Judy by founding Mangan Books, a publishing venture devoted to local and regional history.
Mangan became an important figure in preserving the history of El Paso and the Southwest through both his own books and the titles issued by Mangan Books. His works included Bordertown, El Paso in Pictures, Bordertown Revisited, Ruidoso Country, and Mangan’s War: A Personal View of World War II. Mangan Books published forty titles, including notable works by Leon Metz, N. P. Chesnutt, J. F. Hulse, H. Gordon Frost, Ray Sanchez, and Joseph Leach; several were later reprinted by Texas Christian University Press. Frank and Judy also donated signed first editions of all their publications to the El Paso County Historical Society and the University of Texas at El Paso library.
His achievements brought wide recognition, including El Paso Advertising Federation Man of the Year in 1959, the “Authors at the Pass” award in 1977, library and publishing honors in 1981, and a Texas Institute of Letters award for best book design in Texas. He was a charter member of the El Paso County Historical Society, served on the El Paso County Historical Commission, helped found KCOS public television, and contributed to organizations such as the YMCA and Girl Scouts.
Mangan’s wartime memoir drew on letters saved by his mother to recount his experiences in the European theater, including the Normandy landing, the Battle of the Hedgerows, and the liberation of prisoners from Dachau concentration camp near Munich. Admired by contemporaries such as Leon Metz, he was honored in 2007 by induction into the Hall of Honor as a figure who embodied El Paso’s civic, cultural, and historical life.
Document Transcription
Frank Mangan, 2007 Hall of Honor Recipient
Hall of Honor 2007
Frank Mangan
Frank Mangan is a native El Pasoan born on October 11, 1921, to Grace Kathren Little and Frank John Mangan. He has two sisters, Mary Lou Mangan Faller of San Ramon, California, and Ronnie Mounce of El Paso. His half brother, William Roche, passed away some years ago.
He is a graduate of Austin High School and attended Texas College of Mines and Metallurgy, later Texas Western College, and now the University of Texas at El Paso. He served in the Army Air Corps during World War II and upon discharge from the service, he earned a bachelor of journalism degree from the University of Missouri. He was the student president of the School of Journalism and was awarded a scholarship from Erwin-Wasey Advertising in New York City.
In the late forties, Frank began his career in advertising at the White House Department Store and White & Shuford agency. He married Judith Peterson, a native El Pasoan and 6th generation Texan who was writing radio commercials for the Popular Dry Goods Company. In 1951 Frank joined the El Paso Natural Gas Company where he spent twenty-eight years. After spending 20 months in Houston as assistant director of public relations, he took early retirement in 1979.
Frank began his second career in 1979 when he and Judy formed Mangan Books. Their goal was to design, edit, and publish local and regional historical titles. Meanwhile, Frank had already written and designed Bordertown, published by Carl Hertzog in 1964. He followed that with El Paso in Pictures in 1971, Bordertown Revisited in 1973, Ruidoso Country in 1994, and Mangan's War: A Personal View of World War II in 2003.
The Shooters, published in 1976 with typography and design by Frank Mangan, became the first of eight titles by Leon Metz, and it remains the best selling of the Mangan Books publications, having gone through eleven printings.
Altogether Mangan Books has published forty titles, including Southern Union by N. P. Chesnutt; Railroads and Revolutions by J. F. Hulse; The Gentlemen's Club: The Story of Prostitution in El Paso by H. Gordon Frost; The Bear Facts by Ray Sanchez; El Paso Chronicles by Leon Metz; and Sun Country Banker: The Life and Bank of Samuel Doak Young by Joseph Leach. Texas Christian University Press has reprinted five Mangan book titles. The first was El Paso in Pictures. The Mangans have donated signed, first edition copies of each of their forty published books to the El Paso County Historical Society and to the library of the University of Texas at El Paso.
In terms of honorary accomplishments, Frank Mangan has earned recognition as:
1. El Paso Advertising Federation's Man of the Year in 1959.
2. The recipient of the coveted “Authors at the Pass” award from the El Paso Writers Hall of Fame in 1977.
3. The recipient in 1981 of the Border Regional Library Association's award for writing and publishing El Paso in Pictures in 1972, and Ruidoso Country in 1995.
4. The recipient in 1981 of the “Southwestern Library Association Award of Excellence” for publishing Fort Bliss, an Illustrated History by Leon Metz and Millard McKinney.
5. Also in 1981, he received from the Texas Institute of Letters the award for the best book design in the state of Texas.
Frank Mangan is a charter member of the El Paso County Historical Society and was a member of the El Paso County Historical Commission. He was one of the founders for KCOS, El Paso's public television station, and has served on committees for the YMCA and the Girl Scouts. He made numerous civic contributions while working for and eventually retiring as public relations director for the El Paso Natural Gas Company.
In 2003, Frank designed and published Mangan's War: A Personal View of World War II. From the letters his mother had lovingly saved, he recreated his involvement in some of the big adventures of the European theater of operations, specifically the landing at Normandy and the Battle of the Hedgerows. In one of the more humorous incidents—which wasn't so humorous at the time—Frank described friendly fire that came very close to his foxhole, an event that left him wearing nothing but his GI [government issue] shorts.
And finally, in terms of the war, Frank Mangan was involved in the aid and release of the prisoners of war from the famous and infamous Dachau Concentration Camp outside Munich, Germany.
Leon Metz said of Frank and Judy:
I have known Frank and his lovely wife Judy for many years. I have never had more treasured friends, and El Paso has never had more accomplished and more treasured residents. In my mind, Frank Mangan represents all that is good, and fine, and honorable, and loving about El Paso. He has done it all, and he has been supported every step of the way by his gracious and beautiful wife, Judy.
Frank Mangan epitomizes what this community is, what this community was, and what this community can be.
It is unfortunate that we cannot clone Frank Mangan, because future generations may not realize how fortunate we have been, and what they are going to miss.
