Charles Harrison Mann, Jr. (1908 - 1977) was born in Alabama and received his law degree from the University of Virginia in 1931. He subsequently became an attorney both in Washington, D.C. and in Arlington, Virginia where he and his wife Betty Hart Mann, maintained their home. In 1949, while serving as President of the Northern Virginia Chapter of the University of Virginia Alumni Association, Mann organized an exploratory committee of local citizens to develop support for higher education in Northern Virginia. Through these efforts, the Northern Virginia Center of the University opened in October 1, 1949.

In 1953 Mann organized the Advisory Council to the Northern Virginia Center, which agreed that a two-year branch college should be established. Elected as a Democrat to the Virginia House of Delegates from 1954-1970, Mann sponsored a resolution calling for a study of educational needs for Virginia, and was instrumental in recommending the development of a college system in Virginia, particularly the establishment of a branch in Northern Virginia.

  Mann (far right) at Groundbreaking for George
  Mason College, Fairfax, VA, August 1963, George
  Mason University Archives, Public Relations, 1.8.

Mann was responsible for creating the State Educational Assistance Authority, an educational financial assistance program for Virginia college students, and was instrumental in sponsoring legislation allowing local governments to form regional boards to acquire and transfer land and buildings for educational use. He also served as the Chairman of George Mason College's first Board of Control. He sponsored bills constituting George Mason College as a branch of the University of Virginia and later elevating it to a four year division of the University with the right to grant degrees and offer graduate program. He served on the George Mason University Board of Visitors from 1975 to 1977.

Mann had quite a distinguished career as a public  servant in Virginia, serving eight consecutive terms in the General Assembly and representing Virginia's Eleventh District. He sponsored legislation for driver education and increased medical assitance for the aged and mentally ill. He also made transportation an important issue, voting for I-66 in Arlington in order to help reduce traffic in the county's streets.                                                                                                                            "Mann-0-Gram" message from Mann to his contituents, 
                                                                                                  C. Harrison Mann, Jr. Collection, 44.10.

As the Chairman of Virginia Committee for Highway Safety, he led this citizen's group's lobby against hazardous trucking on the Commonwealth's interstate highways. All in all, Mann served on dozens of committees and boards, both in the state legislature and as part of citizen's groups.