Manuel ‘Manny’ Lopez, retired attorney
Manuel "Manny" Raynor Lopez, 74, passed away Wednesday, July 19, 2017 in Lewes of heart and kidney diseases.
Manny was born in Washington, D.C., to Cornelio and Margaret Raynor Lopez, and spent his childhood in Hyattsville, Md. He was a graduate of Gonzaga College High School in Washington, attended the Naval Academy Preparatory School at Bainbridge, Md., and graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy with the Class of 1966. He was in the 19th Company 4th and 3rd Class years and with the 29th Company 2nd and 1st Class years. A gifted multi-sport athlete, Manny was also in the Drum and Bugle Corps and on the Lucky Bag staff.
After receiving his commission, he was assigned to USS WILTSIE DD-716 in San Diego, Calif. Shortly thereafter, he was denied a marriage license in Maryland to marry his fiancé, Sally Smayling, due to miscegenation laws, where Filipinos were not allowed to marry Caucasian women. His father, attorney Cornelio Lopez, appealed to the state's Attorney General's Office, citing a loophole in the law where persons of mixed Malay race (Manuel's father was Filipino; his mother Caucasian) are not barred from marrying Caucasian women. The Attorney General agreed, and the couple were married on New Year's Day, 1967. Returning to WILTSIE, and later while serving on USS CHICAGO CG-11, Manny spent his active duty on the West Coast and on deployments to the Western Pacific.
Upon leaving the Navy, Manny worked as a roughneck in the California oilfields before returning to the Washington area and working in an administrative position while attending American University Law School. After receiving his JD, he began a 30-year career as a lawyer with the Department of Labor, specializing in mine safety.
Manny loved being around water. There must have been something special that he found in rivers, bays and seas. Maybe it was happenstance, a challenge, a commitment, a deployment, a respite, a job, a family or friends, or something historical. The Potomac, the Susquehanna, the Severn, Chesapeake Bay, the Pacific, San Diego Bay, Tonkin Gulf, Da Nang Harbor, Subic Bay, the Sea of Japan, and Port Hueneme influenced his early life. In retirement, those memories brought him back to the water where he could enjoy relaxing with boating, fishing, crabbing and reading about his favorite historical events. To share those moments with family and friends was what he wanted most. We can picture Manny driving off to heaven in his old '66 mossport green Corvette with two dozen boiled crabs and that big smile on his face. He'll be missed.
Manny was predeceased by his parents and his sister, Andrea Coplin. He is survived by his brother, Tony; his sister Anita Wharton; and his four children, Margaret, Miles, Mary and Michael.
The Memorial/Committal Service will be held at Naval Academy Columbarium Thursday, Sept. 28, at 11 a.m.
Arrangements by Parsell Funeral Home and Crematorium, Kings Highway, Lewes.
