Nicholas Mangione

Nicholas Bernard Mangione ( , ; February 17, 1925 – November 2, 2008) was an American real estate developer. He was the founder of Lorien Health Services and owner of the radio station WCBM, both in Baltimore. Mangione also owned country clubs, hotels, and resorts in the Baltimore area, including Hayfields Country Club and Turf Valley. Mangione's descendants (including 10 children and some 37 grandchildren) remain a prominent family in Maryland business and politics; they include American killer Luigi Mangione, politician Nino Mangione, and professional soccer player Peter Mangione. He was a World War II veteran. He was the eldest son and the second of four children of Maria "Mary" (; 1898–1964) and Luigi "Louis" Mangione (1890–1936), an Italian immigrant couple from Castrogiovanni, Sicily. His father was illiterate and worked for Baltimore's water department until he died of pneumonia when Nicholas was 11 years old.

Career In 1949, after two and a half years of working as a contractor, Mangione bought out his estimating partner, Michael Demarino, His son Louis later became the owner. In July 1970, Baltimore Mayor Thomas D'Alesandro Jr. appointed Mangione to the Baltimore City Board of Education. Mangione's term expired on December 31, 1970, and he was succeeded by Stephen McNierney.

Mangione purchased Turf Valley in Ellicott City, Maryland, in 1978. The club underwent multiple renovations and expansions under Mangione's ownership. In 1988, a group of Black businessmen in Howard County, Maryland criticized Mangione for not hiring enough minority managers at the country club, to which Mangione responded, "I have eight of my kids there. Do they expect me to fire one of them and put somebody else in their place?" Turf Valley later became the center of a boycott after Mangione's nephew and resort manager Frederick B. Grimmel Jr. called a Black NAACP member the N-word during a taped conversation; Mangione was reluctant to fire his nephew, first suspending Grimmel with pay but eventually firing him after pressure from the Black community increased. Grimmel was rehired several months after his firing, and Mangione later told The Baltimore Sun that he believed he was unfairly criticized by the NAACP. Hayfields's previous owner, I. H. "Bud" Hammerman, similarly sought to redevelop the farmland into a 1,250-unit residential community, which failed to get zoning approval in 1980 and 1984 after facing opposition from community residents. At the time of Mangione's purchase, Hayfields included seven historic structures, including an 186-year-old farmhouse that housed Union and Confederate troops during the American Civil War. After his initial proposal was rejected by the Baltimore County Planning Board in 1988, Mangione proposed another plan to redevelop 226 of Hayfields's 474 acres to build 50 high-priced houses and a golf course on Hayfields, Mangione then proposed another plan to redevelop the remaining 248 acres, The Hayfields Country Club opened on July 24, 1998.

Mangione purchased the conservative talk radio station WCBM in 1986. A supporter of conservative radio, Mangione later purchased two other conservative talk radio stations, WWLG and WASA.

Philanthropy Nicholas Mangione and his family had close ties with the Greater Baltimore Medical Center, which has a ward named in honor of Mangione, and where all of his descendants have been born since 1938.

Mangione and his wife were also members of the board of trustees of Loyola University Maryland and major benefactors to the school, being major donors for the acquisition of the school's copy of The Saint John's Bible and the university fitness and aquatic center.

Personal life and death Mangione had 10 children with his wife, Mary (; 1930–2023), six of whom graduated from Loyola University Maryland in Baltimore. As of December 2024, he had 37 grandchildren, including Nino Mangione, a member of the Maryland House of Delegates representing northern Baltimore County; Luigi Mangione, who was arrested in December 2024 and charged with first-degree murder in connection with the killing of Brian Thompson, the CEO of UnitedHealthcare; and professional soccer player Peter Mangione.

Mangione died on November 2, 2008, at the Greater Baltimore Medical Center in Towson, Maryland, after suffering a stroke. He was 83 years old. His wife, Mary, died in 2023.