Ernest Victor Manzella, Jr.

Ernest (Ernie) Victor Manzella died August 2, 2020. He was born February 27, to Ernest and Isabel Manzella in Hackensack, New Jersey. A typical kid of the 50’s, he played stickball in the street with his friends and APBA baseball on rainy days. Ernie still played APBA online with the same guys: Harry in NJ, Ely in Florida and Ernie in NC…good friends through life.

Ernie put himself through college and grad school nights, while working full time. He received his BS degree while working for Prentice Hall Publishing in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey. During this time he met (on a blind date) his future wife Carole and they eventually had a son, Andrew.

Ernie completed his MBA at Seton Hall. He considered his education there as exceptional and with a fresh MBA in hand took a job with A.T.Kearney Consultants in Manhattan. After finding four years of constant travel of a consultant incompatible with family life, Ernie accepted a position at Aspen Publishers, which brought the family to a new home in Frederick, Maryland. Ernie stayed with Aspen until he retired, as Vice President and COO and in his last years there was focused on absorbing mergers and acquisitions into the parent company.

The 80’s and 90’s were happy fruitful years. But 9-11 found Ernie that day in NYC, Carole in a suburban DC school with a large military family population and Andrew in Kansas staying next to an Air Force Base. Experiencing this day so closely to those more impacted and seeing how fragile security can be, the couple decided to retire early and that brought them to Wilmington.

Early retirement did not sit well and Ernie realized a long time dream of opening a wine store, Divine Wines. Ernie supplied his customers with beautiful wines through weekly Friday tastings, special educational events and wine dinners. These activities provided social opportunities where deep friendships were established and are ongoing. The Divine Winers was a spin-off of the Friday tastings and is active til today, zooming right along.

Ernie is survived by his wife Carole, his son Andrew, daughter-in-law Catherine, a brother Bob Manzella, brothers and sisters in law, thirteen nieces and nephews, an equal number of great nieces and nephews as well as many close cousins. We’d like to thank the staff of Davis Health for their care of Ernie during his stay.

Ernie was a gentle, loving man and left this world with a legacy so many wonderful and devoted family and friends.

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Wilmington Funeral & Cremation 1535 S. 41st Street Wilmington, NC 28403 910.791-9099.