Manuel Alfonso Diaz

Manuel "Manny" A. Diaz III died Wednesday morning April 7, 2021 in Tulsa, OK after an extended stay in the hospital and a skilled nursing facility. He was 88 years old.
He was born in Tulsa on Oct. 16, 1932 to Manuel II and Allene Diaz.

Except for his time in the U.S. Army, where he was a corporal serving in Korea from 1953 - 1954, lived his life in Tulsa. He attended Holy Family Catholic School and graduated with a bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Tulsa.

He established a long career as a sales engineer with Tulsa firms including Fram Oil Filter, Byron Jackson Pump and Jensen Mixers.

He was married to Betty Lou for many years. They had three children: Manuel Diaz IV and Amanda, who both proceeded him in death and daughter Diane Burton and husband James Burton, who live in Concord, Mass. He is also survived by a brother, Dan of Houston, TX, and sister, Suzanne Adams of Colorado.

Manny enjoyed his family, his friends and his devotion to sports car racing, rallying and ownership. At the time of his passing he owned a 2015 911 Carrera S Porsche. He had previously owned a Porsche Speedster, a Porsche 356B and a Mercedes 190SL. He loved to tinker with his cars, including an unusual DKW.

He was a member of the Oil Capitol Auto Club and vice president of the Oklahoma Kit Car Club. He participated in, and often won, rallies and autocross races. Many of his longtime friends were fellow sports car enthusiasts and racers.

Services will be held at Schaudt Funeral Services, 5757 S. Memorial at 2 p.m. Monday. The family asks that donations in Manny's name be given to the American Cancer Society in lieu of flowers.




Manny's longtime friend, John Fenrich, passed along these thoughts:

Manny Diaz and I met at the Fram Oil Co. in north Tulsa when I was 17 or 18 years old. I was a flunky doing a worthless summer job and Manny was lead sales engineer for Fram.

It happen in the parking lot, of course, where I had parked my 500-buck Austin-Healey Bug-Eye Sprite next to his pristine Porsche 356B. I found him walking around my wanna-be sports racer and we met.

Something clicked in that hot summer parking lot 55 years ago and Manny invited me to go to an Oil Capitol Auto Club meeting. Soon I was spending a lot of time at Manny's house and becoming part of the Diaz family of Betty Lou, little Manny, Diane and Amanda.

Sports cars (Manny had the Porsche and the Mercedes and a really odd character called a DKW) were the initial attraction, then we discovered we liked the same music (Don Williams and Mac Davis) and Betty Lou and his three kids became part of my life.

I will never forget one Christmas Eve when I helped put together Amanda's first bike (then rode it a block or so to the liquor store to get us big kids some more wine).

I married and move away from Tulsa, but Manny and I were always connected. I learned that he and Betty Lou had parted ways and shared their sadness and I cried when word came of Amanda and little Manny's fate. I will always remember all of the fun and laughter we all shared.

There were hours upon hours when we strained to remove engine blocks from sports cars and polished those beauties up for gymkhanas and rallys. We celebrated victories (the 1st place in the "Melsonseed Rally" comes to mind -- yes, it was misspelled on the trophy) and Manny was always there to help out a competitor whether he was an old friend, a newbie or even a guy we all wanted to beat.

My wife, Kay, and I returned from our adventures in the newspaper business to the Tulsa area some 12 years ago and our first move was to reconnect with Manny. During the time since we have shared many precious moments involving both of our families, and I have never had a better friend than Manny Diaz.

He will have peace now and in my mind he will find a Porsche Speedster to drive and know that he will always come in first to those who were fortunate enough to know him.