Folsom Funeral Service

Dora Foss Mann passed away on December 18, 2016, at the age of 100. She was a 25 year resident of Fox Hill Village in Westwood.  She was born in Cohasset, Massachusetts, on August 24, 1916, at the family estate of her grandfather, Eugene Noble Foss, former three term governor of The Commonwealth.   Her parents were Benjamin Sturtevant Foss of Jamaica Plain, and Dorothy Sherwood Chapman of San Francisco. She had two brothers, Eugene N. Foss, late of Franconia, New Hampshire, and Benjamin S. Foss, late of Ingleside, Texas. Her Sister, Barbara Foss Garrison of Lincoln, Mass., also predeceased her.

Dora grew up in Brookline and attended Beaver Country Day School.  She was later enrolled at the Warrenton Country School, a now defunct boarding school for girls in Virginia that stressed the French language and horsemanship.  Successfully entering Wellesley College with the class of 1938, she threw herself into the study of Biology and participation in tennis and field hockey. Unhappily, her Wellesley days were cut short due to family circumstances, and she finished her formal education at The Garland School in Boston.

Dora insisted on working, even while living at home, and spent several years with The First National Bank of Boston.  She met, and became engaged to, William Frost Mann, of Boston, only son of William Theodore Mann and Emma Louise Frost, and they were married on July 19, 1940 in Brookline.  Bill Mann remained with a single company his entire working career, The Baird and Bartlett Company of Boston.  Soon the young couple moved to a new house at 31 Old Farm Road in Dedham, where they remained happily for almost 50 years.  There they raised two sons. William Theodore, of Arlington, Virginia, and Robert Frost, of Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

Dora was an excellent club golfer and tennis player. Bill and Dora Mann enjoyed long time membership in the Dedham Country and Polo Club, and he was elected president of that social body. As her sons left the nest, Dora and her husband began to travel, and over the next thirty years, put many pins into their travel map of the globe.  She was a self-trained photographer of real talent, and brought back thousands of beautiful slides from their voyages.  Her travel talks with slides were legendary at such venues as the Dedham Public Library, Dedham Country & Polo Club, and Fox Hill.

Dora leaves behind her two sons, daughter-in-law Mary C. Mann, grand-daughter Skylar A. Mann of Florida, eight nephews, and a host of grand-nieces and nephews.  Her beloved husband died in 1990.  Memorial arrangements are private.

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