Fred M. Manning

Who was Fred M. Manning?

Fred M. Manning was an oil developer who lived in Denver, Colorado. In 1925 he founded an oil drilling company in Fort Worth, Texas and moved to Denver in 1930. At one point, his oil drilling operation was the third largest in the United States.

In 1948, Manning became acquainted with Dwight D. Eisenhower during one of Eisenhower’s visits to the Doud family in Denver. The two men corresponded frequently over the next several years. In the early 1950s Manning moved to Rancho Santa Fe, California, where he died in October 1958. His wife Hazel continued to correspond with the Eisenhowers for several years thereafter.