William J. Manning died on March 4, 2023 in Boston, Massachusetts. He was 81 years old. A scientist, teacher, author, gardener and a world traveler, Bill was also a devoted husband and father to his wife, Arlene, and sons, Michael and Stephen.  

Bill was born in Grand Rapids, Michigan in 1941, the middle child of William J Manning Sr. and Lilian Jakeway Manning. He had two sisters, Emily and Susan, both of whom preceded him in death. Bill was a good student, worked a part-time job at the local drugstore and credited his paternal grandmother for sparking his lifelong passion for plants and trees. 

After graduating from Michigan State University, Bill moved to Newark, Delaware where he earned a PhD from the University of Delaware. He first met Arlene in the summer of 1966 when she worked a summer job in his research lab; they married in 1969 and soon moved to Massachusetts after Bill started as a professor at the University of Massachusetts. After seven years of living in Lexington and working in Waltham, Bill transferred to the Amherst campus in 1977 and has been an Amherst resident ever since. 

Bill was a biologist and plant pathologist by training and spent decades studying the impact of air pollution on plants. He maintained greenhouses and set up monitoring stations at places like Mount Greylock, Mount Washington and the Quabbin Reservoir. He once drove a Uhaul truck full of pine tree seedlings from Tennessee to Amherst so he could use them for experiments. He also worked for more than 10 years in Central and Eastern Europe surveying the valleys and slopes of the Carpathian Mountain Range looking at the impact of air pollution on trees. In retirement, he researched and wrote a book about urban trees and air pollution. 

In addition to his work at UMass, Bill was also an editor at Environmental Pollution, a scientific journal, for over 20 years; for part of that time he served as the editor-in-chief. In this role he worked extensively with other editors and scientists from around the world and hosted multiple international research conferences.

Bill was an enthusiastic traveler who strongly believed in the value of getting out and seeing the world. He frequently collaborated with scientists around the world and was a mentor to many international researchers. His work allowed him to visit over 30 countries, including Italy, Poland, Mexico, China, Japan, Korea, France, Switzerland and Australia. After he retired, Bill and Arlene visited Germany six times to visit their son and grandchildren while they were living there. Their favorite destination, without question, was England, with the Lake District region the place they returned to over and over.

England was also the destination for two family sabbaticals, one in 1975 and one in 1981. During the first sabbatical Bill and Arlene spent time visiting Europe while sleeping in their VW van (with two young children!); during the second sabbatical the family was based in Lancaster, England and visited Scotland, Ireland, Wales and London. Later, back in the United States, Bill took the family on driving tours of national parks and later logged hundreds of miles on the road while visiting his sons during their college years. 

Bill was always happy to be outside working in the yard and in his garden. Over the years he transformed a bare acre of land by planting numerous fruit trees, a wide variety of Japanese maples, flowering shrubs, evergreens of all sizes, a large vegetable garden and innumerable tulips and daffodils. He would spend hours every year spreading a mountain of mulch, one wheelbarrow at a time.  When he wasn’t in the yard, he could often be found sitting in a favorite chair with a book; he amassed a large personal library and had an impressive ability to recall the details of nearly everything he read. 

Bill was also a member of Grace Episopal Church in Amherst for over 40 years, both as a congregant and for a time as the junior warden. He believed it was important to contribute to the community around you; in later years he volunteered at the Food Bank of Western Massachusetts and was a supporter of the Kestrel Trust Land Preservation. 

Bill is survived by Arlene (his wife), sons Michael (and his wife, Dionne) and Stephen (and his wife, Lis) and by three grandchildren, Gabe, Owen and Quinn. He will be greatly missed and we are all grateful for the full life he had and shared with us. 

In lieu of flowers, any donations to the Kestrel Trust or to the Food Bank of Western Massachusetts would be welcome. A memorial service will be held at a date later this spring. Memorial guestbook at www.douglassfuneral.com