Hart Mankin – Judge, United States Court of Veterans Appeals Captain, United States Air Force Reserve

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From a contemporary press report:

Hart T. Mankin, 62, a former business executive, Texas lawyer, Delaware professor and government official who had served on U.S. Court of Veterans Appeals since 1990, died May 28, 1995 at his home in Washington. He also had a home in Lewes, Delaware.

He came to Washington in 1969, serving until 1971 as general counsel of the General Services Administration. He was the Navy general counsel from 1971 to 1973. During that Washington tour, he received a Navy Distinguished Public Service Award and a GSA Special Achievement Award.

Mr. Mankin moved to Delaware in 1973, where he was general counsel of the Columbia Gas service system and the Columbia Gas holding company before retiring from private industry in 1989. Those years included terms chairing the legal committees of the American Gas Association and the Interstate Gas Association.

He also was active in civic work in Delaware and served as an adjunct professor and member of the board of governors of the Widener University law school in Wilmington, Del.

Mr. Mankin was nominated to the bench in 1989 by President George Bush and confirmed by the Senate in 1990. He had worked with Bush in Texas politics in the 1950s and 1960s and had served as co-chairman of the Delaware Bush-Quayle campaign in 1988.

He served on the national council of the Federal Bar Association and was a member of the Washington chapter of the Inns of Court. He also did Episcopal parish work, taught confirmation classes, trained acolytes and was a licensed lay reader at various churches.

Mr. Mankin, who was born in Cleveland, was a 1954 graduate of the University of the South in Sewanee, Tenn., and a 1960 graduate of the University of Houston law school. He served on active Air Force duty from 1954 to 1957, and retired from the reserves as a captain in 1965.

Before coming to Washington, he practiced law in Houston, where he also served as general counsel of the Harris County Republican Executive Committee and on Houston's first Charter Study Committee.

Survivors include his wife of 42 years, Ruth, of Washington and Lewes; three children, Margaret Mankin Barton of Alexandria, Theodore Mankin of Atlanta and Susan Mankin Benzel of Kennett Square, Pa.; and four granddaughters.

He was buried in Arlington National Cemetery under the provisions of a waiver to the normal burial requirements.

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