On March 12th, 2022 Manuel "Manny" Perez passed away at age 75 after a battle with esophageal cancer.

Born in Cuba, he left his homeland in 1961 after the island's take over by the communist government.  He was part of the Peter Pan exodus of children from Cuba and he arrived in the USA alone at age 13. Even though he started to work at age 16 and finished high school at night, he was accepted by Stevens Tech and started his studies in 1964. He graduated in 1968 with a BS in Mathematics and in 1970 an MS in Mathematics.

Following his graduation from Stevens, he worked for Exxon in several roles around the world. In 1982, he developed the Functional Database which was built into a product called TM1. He founded Sinper Corporation to market TM1, which was later acquired by Applix, Cognos, and then IBM. He worked for IBM until his retirement in 2014.

 

At 6’4" Manny was larger than life with a deep voice and booming laugh to match. He lived on 3 continents, traveled to more than 70 countries, and used his love of photography to document his journeys. He was a true gourmet who enjoyed the best foods, either in restaurants or that he cooked himself surrounded by family and friends. He was a lover of classical music, opera, and Cuban art. He began to paint himself after retirement and had 4 successful art exhibits.

He is missed by his large family, which included 15+ cousins, several godchildren, 4 nieces and nephews and their offspring, two sisters, his two sons Adrian and Daniel as well as Maria his wife of 51 years.