Roberta T. Manning, a retired professor of history at Boston College, died in her sleep at her home in Newton, Massachusetts, on January 3. She was 77 years old.
A native of Austin, Texas, Dr. Manning was a graduate of Rice University in Houston. She earned her Ph.D. at Columbia University in New York City.
Dr. Manning joined the faculty at Boston College in 1975 and remained there until her retirement in 2013. She was an expert on Soviet history and politics. She was the author of The Crisis of the Old Order in Russia: Gentry and Government (Princeton University Press, 1983) and co-editor of Stalinist Terror: New Perspectives (Cambridge University Press, 1993).
I remember Roberta well from our days at Rice. She and her roommate, Diana Dee Green, visited the Shamrock Hilton to see and interview Fidel Castro, Raul Castro, Che Guevara, and assorted revolutionaries. They made the front page of the Houston Chronicle. Rice disciplined them for missing curfew. In those days, even expressing an intellectual interest in Communism could be frowned up. I always admired these very gutsy girls and their daring deed. I would have loved to know Roberta as a professor. So sorry to hear of her passing. She could be a model for many of today’s young women.