Obituary: Penelope Mann

Grandmother, minister, activist, dancer

After a lifetime of service and self-expression, Penelope Dawn Clark Mann, United Church of Christ minister, beloved wife, mother, grandmother, and sister, died April 27 at the Pilgrim Place Health Center in Claremont.

Penny was born March 6, 1942 in Clinton, Iowa. Raised in Columbus, Ohio, she attended University High School, a small progressive school on the campus of The Ohio State University. During her junior year in high school, she spent a semester in France. She later graduated from The Ohio State University, majoring in French.

Music, theater, and dance were a big part of her upbringing and remained central throughout her life. Her joy in dance was grounded in 13 years of ballet studies. In Columbus, she performed in musicals at the OSU Stadium Theatre. She also took voice lessons and developed her gift for singing through the music program at the First Congregational Church.

In 1964 she began her Master of Divinity program at Union Theological Seminary in New York City. Inspired by the Union advocacy culture, she found her activist side and was involved in the movement to end the Vietnam War. In her anti-war work, she discovered that she could express her political beliefs through song and dance. At Union, she met fellow seminarian David Mann, and they fell in love.

In 1968, the couple drove across the country in his Volkswagen, and she fell in love with California’s Bay Area. After their wedding at Union Seminary in May of 1969, they forged an intentionally egalitarian marriage. “The couple worked hard at being champions of each other’s needs and dreams,” her family shared. “They supported each other’s vocations while co-parenting their two sons, Joshua and Lucas. And they offered their love and support as their sons lived into their own marriages. Penny loved being a mother and delighted in being a grandmother.”

She became an ordained minister in the United Church of Christ in 1974 and served in this capacity in many places. Her ministerial career began in 1969 at the Stanford YWCA as assistant director. In 1972 she and her husband became co-campus ministers of the United Campus Christian Ministry at Stanford.

In 1976 the family moved to Fresno, where the couple served as co-directors of the Fresno Metro Ministry for seven years. She focused on racial justice and school desegregation, along with leading democratic parenting classes. In 1983, she began feeling an urge to branch out and pastor a congregation. She was called to be the pastor of Mount Hollywood Congregational Church in Los Angeles, and it was her turn to move the family.

At Mount Hollywood, she and the congregation became deeply involved in the sanctuary movement. She was arrested at the arms depot in Seal Beach along with dozens of other clergy who were protesting arms shipments being sent to support the Contras in Nicaragua.

Her husband’s work called the Mann family to San Jose in 1990, where she served in creative and restorative ministries at San Jose State and in various UCC churches in Northern California.

At this juncture she discovered InterPlay, a community of teachers and players exploring improvisational embodiment practices. InterPlay increasingly became her focus. Working with dance, improvisation, and singing, she soon was invited to join the Wing It! performing ensemble. She performed with Wing It! for 15 years and became a certified leader of InterPlay, leading creative workshops and retreats throughout the remainder of her life.

From 1993 to 1997 she was also engaged with Capacitar, an international nonprofit that offers healing arts training to marginalized communities worldwide. Inspired by her deep commitment to the people of Central America, she participated in several Capacitar women’s journeys to Nicaragua and Guatemala.

In 2009, the couple joined Claremont’s Pilgrim Place retirement community. “Penelope brought her remarkable energy, creativity and love to Pilgrim Place,” her family added. “She was a prime mover in the person first initiative at the health services center and a 15-year singer and guitar player with the Pilgrim Pickers.”

Her deep concern for the climate crisis led her to co-found the Citizens Climate Lobby chapter in Claremont in 2013. Citizens Climate Lobby is a national organization building support in Congress for a solution to climate change. She insisted that every monthly CCL meeting begin with singing.

At Pilgrim Place, she led daily morning qigong sessions under the Chinese elm behind the castle. She also brought InterPlay to Pilgrim Place, “offering residents opportunities to use movement to discover the connection of body, mind, and soul and to find wisdom in these connections,” her family said. “She called this work ‘fun yet sneaky deep.’

“In this later life phase, she embraced Buddhist meditation practice and study, which enriched her spiritual life and informed her approach to living … and eventually, dying. She went on multiple meditation retreats. Her lifework was always about seeking wholeness of mind, body, and spirit for herself and others.

“To be ‘friended’ by Penelope was to be known and cherished. She will be missed by the many she has touched deeply over her impactful life.”

She is survived by her husband David; son Josh and wife Michelle Mann, son Lucas and wife Cyndie LeardMann, all of San Diego; and grandchildren Mikayla, Hunt, Zander, and Alina. She is also survived by sister Betsy Abbott of Ontario, Canada, and brother Ted Clark from Maryland.

The family invites those wishing to make a donation in her name to support Sustainable Claremont’s Tree Fund at donorbox.org/penelope-mann, or InterPlay at 4agc.com/donate/pennymann.

A memorial service has been set for 3 p.m. Saturday, June 14 at Pilgrim Place’s Decker Hall, 625 Mayflower Rd., Claremont, CA 91711.

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