Known to all who knew and loved him as Jack, he was born on September 13, 1925 in the Galician village of Chlebeczyn-Lesney to Henry and Emma (Heuchert) Mann. At the tender age of four, he travelled by ship with his parents and siblings from Europe to Pier 21 in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Reaching their destination in the Melville View District, Jack began a new chapter in his life as a Canadian citizen.

Jack received his education on the family farm as well as the Melville View Country School. It was here he honed his musical skills as the accordion player in the local Saturday Night Polka Dance Band. He felt great satisfaction when he was able to get each band member a raise of $3.00 per night! It wasn’t long until, as a young single man, he set out on his own, finding diverse employment from British Columbia to Ontario.

On June 28, 1953, Jack married his lifelong companion of 62 years, Elizabeth Alice Schmidt. Relocating to Oshawa, Ontario in 1956 proved fruitful for Jack. He worked at General Motors for 13 years as a mechanic and became the proud father of 3 children - Ronald, Deborah and Brenda. His family was his pride and joy and took precedence over all else in his heart and mind.

The prairies soon called them home, and Jack moved his family to a small Saskatchewan farm at Colmer. Here they took pride in their Jersey cows, enormous vegetable gardens and numerous flowerbeds. Eventually several janitorial jobs were added to their already heavy work load. Their superb work ethic shone through for such local businesses as St. Paul’s Lutheran Church, Sask. Renewable Resources, SGI and Sears. Their loyal and excellent service was enjoyed by the Melville District Credit Union for 17 years. Despite hard work and little money, the Mann household overflowed with irreplaceable treasures - laughter and love. It was here that lessons were learned by powerful examples of character, strength, honesty, integrity and the belief in a loving and faithful heavenly Father.

Jacob loved life and excelled intellectually by constantly learning new things. He would take a clock apart just to see how it worked! His passions included gardening, tending flowerbeds (especially red ones), vacationing, hockey and baseball, with his favourite pastimes being fishing, watching fishing and hunting programs, and catching up on a great old Western movie - he always enjoyed a good “shoot ‘em up!”. One of his greatest loves was music, and Jack excelled at singing and playing his 120 bass accordion.

Jacob was predeceased by his childhood sister O’Tillie, father Henry, niece Dawn, mother Emma, sister Betty, brother Philip, brother-in-law Hugh and nephew Paul. He leaves to mourn his passing his loving wife of 62 years, Betty, son Ronald (Pamela), daughter Deborah (Rob Morrell); daughter Brenda (Brian Cottrell); granddaughter Brennae (Jeremy Smith), grandson Andrew Cottrell, great-grandson Jaxx Smith, sister Anna (John Sagan), sister Edna (Jim Brock) and numerous nieces and nephews.