V. James Mannoia

Vincent James ("Jim") Mannoia grew up in the midwest, a Free Methodist preacher's kid. In 1962 the entire family moved to São Paulo Brazil, where his parents served as missionaries for 9 years. His father was the president of the Free Methodist theological seminary there. In 1967 Jim graduated from Escola Graduada de São Paulo, left his family behind and moved to Boston where he finished an undergraduate degree in physics at MIT in 1971. Tiring of late nights in the lab and with an awakening interest in philosophy and theology he moved to St Louis after graduation and began a PhD program at St Louis University in philosophy. Transferring after one year to Washington University also in St Louis, he finished his PhD in 1975. Meantime he had married Ellen Schroeder in 1972 and they moved to Grove City Pennsylvania where Jim served as assistant professor of physics having been unable to find an academic position in philosophy. Their son was born in 1976, Vincent James Mannoia IV, and in 1978 the family moved to Santa Barbara California where Jim served as assistant, then associate, and finally tenured full professor of philosophy at Westmont College. He began his administrative career there as associate academic Dean. Their daughter Eva Marie was born in 1979. From 1987 to 1989 the family spent 2 years in Zimbabwe where Jim was Lecturer in philosophy at the University of Zimbabwe. In 1993 they moved to Houghton College in western New York where he served as Vice President for Academic Affairs and Dean of the Faculty until 1999 when he was appointed the 10th President of Greenville University near St Louis. Following the loss of his wife Ellen to breast cancer in 2007, Jim retired in 2008 first to Virginia Beach then returning eventually to Santa Barbara in 2011. He married a widowed former colleague Jane Higa in 2013 but lost her to ALS in 2014. Dr. Mannoia remarried again in 2016 to Elizabeth Poje and they continue to live near Santa Barbara. Following retirement, Jim served as a consultant in higher education for the Council for Christian colleges and Universities in Washington DC and with Dr Paul Corts formed Global Higher Education Development Associates, managing projects in northern Iraq, working for the Rwandan government, as well as short-term assignments in Burundi and numerous speaking engagements around the world. His passion has always been for Christian liberal arts, with his thinking on this subject captured in his book Christian Liberal Arts, an Education That Goes Beyond. His first book, What Is Science? Is used as a supplemental text in undergraduate science courses And his most recent book in 2021, is a collection of the talks he gave in convocations to his students at Greenville University from 2000 until he retired. Rev. Mannoia is an ordained elder in the Free Methodist Church.