Brent Manley, 77, passed peacefully on December 21, 2024.

Francis Celestino Brent Manley II. was born November 9, 1947, in Orange TX, to Francis Celestino Brent Manley and Helen Marie Manley.

The eldest of five, Brent was the ringleader of all sorts of childhood mischief, including painting his brothers and sisters with house paint. In the small town of Orange, Brent remembered being allowed to walk across town to take his twin brothers to see movies.

Brent’s family moved to Pensacola FL, where he graduated from Pensacola High Schooi and attended Pensacola Junior College. In his sophomore year he transferred to Loyola University in New Orleans LA. He was drawn to journalism in college and worked his way through school as a reporter for the Times-Picayune newspaper, earning an award during his tenure for his investigative journalism on a corruption scandal.

Brent married his fellow journalism student, Susan Michie, during college, and in 1969 they had a daughter, Colleen. He was drafted into the U. S. Army in 1970 and tested well on a language exam. He was sent to language school at Fort Bliss in El Paso TX, where he learned spoken South Vietnamese. He held a Top-Secret security clearance and served in Phu Bai, Vietnam, translating written North Vietnamese from intercepted air transmissions. The stint in language school was key to his future because it was there he made friends with some guys who spent their spare time playing bridge. Brent taught himself to play, and his interest grew into what would later be a bridge career and the growth of an international group of friends.

After he returned from Vietnam, Brent and Susan moved to Memphis where her family lived. Brent became a reporter for the Memphis Press-Scimitar, the afternoon newspaper. He covered City Hall and was offered a position as Assistant to Mayor Wyeth Chandler. By this time, Brent had become an avid duplicate bridge player, and he frequently attended weekend tournaments. After the formal election of the next mayor, Dick Hackett, Brent got a call one Monday morning from the mayor’s secretary. Brent had been away at a tournament on Friday, when the new mayor swept out the entire City Hall staff, including Brent! The new mayor had come around on Friday to lay off the old staff and install the people who helped him in the election.

Ironically, the afternoon paper where Brent formerly worked closed at the same time. The Monday afternoon paper was the final issue and included a story about “Manley Fired from Mayor’s Office.” Of course, with all of those journalists on the street, there were not many job openings in Memphis. He got a job at the prestigious Houston Post as a reporter and was promoted to City Editor. He later worked briefly for a paper in Biloxi MS. While he lived in Houston he took up running and trained for a 5K. It was the beginning of a lifetime endeavor.

Brent was fortunate to have a career that he loved. After 20 years as a reporter and editor for newspapers, he got a call from Henry Francis, editor of the American Contract Bridge League (ACBL) Bulletin. Henry had an opening on the editorial staff. Brent flew to Chicago at a bridge championship to interview.

Brent started working for the ACBL in 1989 and retired in 2014. During his tenure as Executive Editor, he oversaw many developments and updates, most notably the transition from a digest-sized format to a full-sized publication in 2003.

Brent is slated to be inducted to the Bridge Hall of Fame at the 2025 summer NABC in Philadelphia. The Blackwood Award is given to individuals who have contributed greatly to the game of Bridge without necessarily being world-class players. In receiving this award, he will join a distinguished group that includes Alan Truscott, George Rosenkranz, Kathie Wei-Sender, Henry Francis, Eric Kokish, Audrey Grant, and many others that have been friends over the years.

It was after Brent started working at the ACBL that he met Donna at a bridge tournament in Tupelo. They married at the Memphis Botanic Garden on Daffodil Hill and continued playing bridge together, enjoying their special version of Precision bidding. In 1992, they went to a lot of tournaments and were listed on the Top 500 Bridge Players in the ACBL based on masterpoints earned that year.

Brent loved to travel, especially air travel to international destinations. In 2000, he was invited to be on the staff of the Daily Bulletin at the Bridge World Championships in Bermuda. That was the first in a series of 21 world championships ending in September 2019 in Wuhan, China, (which no one had ever heard of at that time). Donna traveled to most tournaments for a week and enjoyed exploring the area while Brent slaved over a hot keyboard.

He worked on the Daily Bulletin staff for many European Bridge Championships and also for the Gold Coast Congress in Australia from 2012 to 2020 (sliding out of there in February, just before COVID shut travel down).

Brent wrote, co-wrote or ghostwrote and edited several books, including the latest edition of The Encyclopedia of Bridge, The Everything Bridge Book, The Little Book of Bridge, At the Table: The Autobiography of the World’s #1 Rated Bridge Player (with Bob Hamman), Tao of Bridge: 200 Principles To Transform Your Game and Your Life, and “Precision Today: Your Guide to Learning the System (with David Berkowitz).

When Brent started running while in Houston, he sensibly started with a 5K. Once in Memphis, he decided to try a marathon, just to see if he could do it. He picked the First Tennessee Memphis Marathon in 1996, and trained alone, mostly on a dreary industrial street near his house. He finished the race and plopped down in the Pyramid Stadium to watch the awards and video. Big mistake. He could hardly climb those stairs to get to the car.

Two days later, he was itching for another marathon. He started training with a group led by Mark Higginbotham, which greatly improved both his running times and his training spirits. For many years, he ran with a group calling themselves the SAMs (Smart-Ass Marathoners).

Brent was a slow runner who trained seriously (most of the time) and ran to the best of the talents God gave him. After running a few marathons, he set his sights on completing a marathon in all 50 states. He finished this quest in September 2021 at the Maui Marathon. That day there was record-breaking heat, and Brent thought a lot about quitting. Fortunately, a kind policeman gave him a cold drink, and he ended up finishing ahead of four other slow runners. Back in Memphis, there was a surprise party to celebrate the 50 states, including friends from out of town. Brent was ecstatic that he had not given up.

In 1993, Brent joined the Memphis Runners Track Club (MRTC), later becoming a lifetime member, and started working with the Finish Line Crew. As with any good volunteer job, he was soon asked to do more. He joined the board to do Media Relations. He served two years as MRTC President (Summer 2003 to 2005), then started as Roadrunner editor in April 2006. With the first issue, he upgraded from a photocopied, stapled, black and white format to a 40-page four-color magazine. Brent loved working with friend and graphic artist Latrescia Goss for 14 years to create the Roadrunner magazine, until his health began failing.

Brent loved being a coach in the beginner’s section of the annual Women Run/Walk Memphis series each summer. He was so proud when someone in his group was able to finish the Graduation 5K after starting out as “I can hardly run to the mailbox”.

The company that published a number of Brent’s bridge books wanted to add a Triathlon training book to their Everything series. Brent thought of local triathlon legend Lucia Colbert, and they wrote the book together over many cups at Starbucks.

Brent’s total of international countries visited (not counting just changing planes) was 35. During the newspaper days, he took several assignments to travel and write stories about places such as the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia. He looked for opportunities to run while abroad, including a 10K in Denmark, a 10K in record-breaking heat in Menton, France, and a 10K in Cardiff, Wales, during a trip where he was a Best Man at Mark Horton’s wedding.

Brent was a kind person, always looking for ways to help people and make the world a better place.

Brent is survived by his wife, Donna Manley, daughter, Colleen (Grayson, dec.) Wells, grandchildren Gabriel (Hannah) Wells and Faith (Tyler) Wells, two sisters, Angela (Paul) Garcia and Deborah (Kenny) Winters, twin brothers, Grant (Kristi) Manley and Donald (Cheri) Manley, plus many cousins, nieces, nephews and friends all over the world.

There will be a Celebration of Life on Saturday, April 12, 2025, at the FedEx Event Center in Shelby Farms Park, Memphis TN, overlooking the lake with a beautiful sunset.

Other websites with information on Brent

https://bridgewinners.com/art…

See the Personal Note section on this website for a list of the World Bridge Championships he worked at and his marathons.

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