Father Robert G. Mann, who directed the pastoral care department at Provena United Samaritans Medical Center in Danville from 1990 to 2003, died on Tuesday, March 19, at his retirement home in Sun City West, Ariz. He was 79.

A memorial Mass in Danville will be scheduled at a later date. Father Mann will be buried next to his parents in Clinton, Iowa, after a private service.

Born June 5, 1933, in Clinton to Roy Vincent Mann Sr. and Mary Marvel Baumeister Mann, he was a graduate of St. Bede Academy in Peru and St. Ambrose College in Davenport, Iowa. He continued post-graduate and major seminary studies at Mount St. Bernard in Dubuque, and was ordained to the priesthood for the Diocese of Davenport on June 6, 1959.

He served in parishes from Iowa City to Davenport and was an educator at Assumption High School in Davenport and Regina High School in Iowa City. He moved to Colorado Springs, Colo., in 1976, where he taught and cared for two parishes.

He returned to the Midwest in the late 1980s, and came to the Diocese of Peoria in 1990 to serve at United Samaritans, providing prayerful love and compassion during times of illness, stress and grief.

“The priesthood has been extremely, extremely important to my life and I wouldn’t change it,” said Father Mann, who also assisted at parishes in the Danville area, after being granted senior status by the Diocese of Peoria in 2003. “The Lord has blessed me a great deal to guide me into this life.”
A golfing enthusiast, he retired to Arizona, but continued to serve parishes in the Sun City West area on a part-time basis.

Father Mann was preceded in death by his parents as well as brothers Roy Jr., Charles, and Jack. He is survived by nieces, a nephew, and a sister-in law, Jean M. Mann of Kenosha, Wis.