It is with our deepest sorrow and loss to say goodbye to our dearest one, Steve Mangutz, who passed peacefully on July 11, 2020 in Jefferson Healthcare Hospital to the sound of his wife of 44 years, Cindy, playing her harp that he loved so much. He passed from complications of pneumonia, non-covid.
He was 69 years old, and was born in Saginaw, Michigan to parents Mike and Betty Mangutz. He is survived by wife Cindy, daughter Daija Smith, son-in-law Dom Smith, granddaughters Ana and Aurora Bramson and Rosie Carey, sisters Barb Mangutz, Missy Mangutz, Beth Reinig and Mickey Gentry, and brother Mike and his wife Marilyn, dear cousin and BFF Todd Giakas “T-Man,” many other cousins, nieces, nephews and uncles in Michigan.
Steve graduated in 1969 from Bridgeport High, having a very successful football run. He was the neighborhood kids’ best friend, always exploring the woods, ice skating, building tree houses, always a kid at heart till the end. By the early 70s he hit the road, hitch-hiking from Key West to Texas to Oregon, where he met the love of his life Cindy and her adorable 3-year-old son Jarrod Paul Bramson, who passed from their lives last year. “We see them together in heaven.”
Soon, with a new baby on the way, then a move to Leavenworth, Washington where they both began their art careers; Cindy as a painter and Steve a woodcarver. They soon began a collaborative journey in art, beginning with Art in the Park and an arts and crafts shop, but eventually ended up in Port Townsend where they opened a large art co-op while still doing all the big art fairs throughout the Northwest. They also created a line of rustic cedar furniture and garden items from their 10-acre homestead where they built a home all off-grid.
He will be greatly missed by all the lives he touched with his great kindness, humanity and gentle, funny spirit.
R.I.P.
Meet you on the flipside, baby.
