Spokane man heralded in both communities

Dr. Michael Manz, the bearded, boisterous entrepreneur known equally for his twin vocations of psychiatry and winemaking, died early Wednesday at his Spokane home. He was 58.

Family members suspected that Manz, who had a recent history of heart problems, suffered a heart attack in his sleep.

“His wife was always worried that he was going to pack twice as much life into half a lifetime,” said daughter-in-law Kimberly Lusk Manz.

News of his sudden death stunned friends and colleagues in Spokane medical and viniculture circles, where Manz had excelled since the mid-1980s. Manz was associate medical director and attending psychiatrist for Sacred Heart Medical Center’s Psychiatric Center for Children and Adolescents.

“He was really a mental health champion in this community,” said Susan Hammond, director of the hospital’s psychiatric services. “He’s just a household name in the community for child psychiatry.”

Manz was also the founder and co-owner of Spokane’s Mountain Dome and Grande Ronde Cellars wineries, which were credited with raising the international reputation of Spokane wines.

This summer, Manz’s top champagne-style wine, the Cuvee Forte, was named one of the top 100 new wine finds in the world by British writer Tom Stevenson.

“I thought he brought a vision that Spokane could produce great wines,” said partner Dave Westfall, who was a friend and colleague of Manz for more than two decades.

In both worlds, Manz’s work was characterized by a quest for excellence, friends said. At Sacred Heart, he created the BEST program, which provides comprehensive treatment for mentally ill children and support for their parents.

“It is a unique program unlike any other in the state,” Hammond said. “He was immensely proud of that.”

At the winery, which began in the kitchen of a geodesic dome in 1984, Manz marshaled the help of his wife, Patricia, their three children and his brother, John Mueller, to create and sustain new offerings that ranged from still wine and the state’s first legal brandy to sparkling wines.

“Every year he thought he had to improve on it,” Westfall said.

Manz, a solidly built man with bushy eyebrows and a full beard, was known for his outspoken views, said Kim Connolley, a nurse manager in Sacred Heart’s child and adolescent psychiatry unit.

“He had strong opinions, passionate opinions, not ones that everybody agreed with, but he was fine with that,” she said. “He was larger than life in every space that he filled.”

Manz’s strongest passions revolved around his large, close-knit family. He was married for more than 35 years to Patricia Manz, who owns and operates Spokane’s Woodland Montessori school.

The couple have three children, Erik, David and Rachael, and one granddaughter, Sylvie. In recent months, Manz was a proud grandfather who baby-sat in the evenings while Sylvie’s parents worked.

“Michael was very well-loved by all of us,” said Kimberly Lusk Manz, who is a Spokesman-Review copy editor. “It was a very, very close family and we all knew how well-loved we were by him, too.”

Born in Minneapolis, Manz earned a bachelor’s degree from Augsburg College and a medical degree from Baylor College. After completing psychiatric residencies in San Francisco and Portland, Manz moved with his wife to Spokane in the early 1980s.

The wine community will miss Manz, said John Allen, co-owner of Vino! in Spokane.

“Dr. Manz inspired everybody in the business by his sheer power of will, by saying, ‘I’m going to make wine and I’m going to make the wine I like,’ ” Allen said. “It was bold of them to do what they did, and they did it with such panache.”

Services will be held at 1 p.m. Nov. 10 at St. Mark’s Lutheran Church, 316 E. 24th Ave., Spokane. Call (509) 747-6677 for information.