Manny Valavanis lived in Haverhill, Mass., through his high school years. Throughout his life he could always recall many a story about his childhood, and he grew up fast during those difficult years during the Depression and pre-WWII times. Raised by his father and grandmother after his mother died when he was very young, Manny was responsible for taking care of many household chores. He became a very capable cook, and throughout his marriage always pitched in to help around the house. After graduation he enlisted in the Civilian Conservation Corps and was assigned to work sites in Colorado and northern Vermont. He worked for a time as an electrician with his cousin. He later enlisted in the Army during WWII and went through months of training in the south, then was discharged due to damage to his inner ear. Manny worked as an electrician at the Fore River Shipyard in Quincy, Mass. He earned his associate's degree from Wentworth Institute and logged many hours commuting from Haverhill to Boston by train. Later he lived with his sister Ginger in the South End. He took a job at the Watertown Arsenal, later known as the Army Materials and Mechanics Research Center, as an engineer technician / draftsman. To supplement his education, during the early years of his career he took night courses at MIT. He retired in 1988 after more than 38 years. Manny met Pauline Koulouris at a church picnic and they married in July 1954. Their first home was in Brighton, Mass., where their daughter Patricia was born in 1958. They moved to Belmont in 1967. A humble man, Manny was never one to seek the limelight, but his warmth and kindness always stood out. He was a shy man, yet he was truly a "people person." He could talk with anyone and made long-lasting connections wherever he went. There are people all over Belmont - at the bank, the gas station, the pizza store, clerks at the supermarket and many other places - who were always glad to see him and share some chit-chat about the news of the day, the Red Sox, the economy, etc. Manny was deliberate and meticulous. He took great pride in his work and always thought through the best and the right was to do things. That kind of attention to detail showed up even in the smaller facets of life, like the way he laid out the table for breakfast every morning the night before, kept the impossibly neat car trunk with well-organized emergency supplies, and with trimmed the day's TV program out of the newspaper. Though he never traveled out of the country or got on a plane, he loved to watch travel programs and documentaries and could describe the sights with wonderment as if he'd been there. He never played organized sports, but he was a devoted fan of Boston sports teams, and gave Patricia a solid foundation of how to throw a ball and play basketball and tennis during hours of fun at the playground. During the past 26 years, Manny was very proud to be Mark's father-in-law and marveled at Mark's ability to tackle all manner of construction-related projects. He greatly enjoyed helping out on weekends while Mark built the house in Andover. When grandsons Jason and Dean arrived, Manny loved being with them, getting down on the floor to play, and hearing about their activities as they got older. Right up to his last week, Manny got out to do errands and kept fit on the stationary bike at home, often peddling five miles a day. He would tell anyone he was amazed to be 90 years old ("and I'm in my second childhood, you know!"), and always said "I can't complain - I'm taking things one day at a time." He lived a long full life, and truly was, as people have said, "a nice man," and "such a gentleman." He will be missed.