When the Harts moved to the Thurston neighborhood, Donna recalls, “there were many more German people, because of Daimler,” the German company that owned Chrysler at the time. “Now, there’s a strong Asian influence.” | J. Adrian Wylie
A northern New Jersey girl, Donna Mancusi-Ungaro Hart first encountered Italian when she traveled to Italy at age eleven and met her cousins who lived outside of Milan. “I didn’t speak a word of Italian, but I fell in love with it,” she says.
Earning degrees from Vassar and Harvard, she worked as a German translator (she learned the language for her PhD) at Fraunhofer, a German research institute. When the firm relocated their U.S. headquarters to Ann Arbor in 1995, Donna, her husband Bob, and their two young children moved to the Thurston neighborhood, near Sugarbush Park.
The “international aspect” is one of Donna’s favorite parts of Ann Arbor. “When we first moved to the neighborhood, there were many more German people, because of Daimler,” which at the time owned Chrysler. “Now, there’s a strong Asian influence.”
The Harts’ home, a “school bus yellow” Cape Cod with a huge garden, was the second one built by high schoolers in the Ann Arbor Student Building Industry Program, an experiential learning initiative. The first was on nearby Yellowstone Dr., and the third, says Donna, “is right around the corner, on Carl Ct.”
Their kids attended Thurston, then Clague, then Huron. “I love the school system here, where you have neighborhood elementary and somewhat centralized middle schools.” Both took up musical instruments at Thurston, with her son continuing to play clarinet in the orchestra at Purdue, where he was a flight major.
Donna’s offices were a mile away in Domino’s Farms; Bob, an architect, worked there too, at Uppgren & Associates. She had a world-spanning career, traveling and translating from London to Shanghai, eventually transitioning to U-M’s Health Information Technology department. Throughout her career (she retired in 2019), she continued to tutor dozens of students in Italian. “They would send me postcards when they went to Italy.”
She held her Italian lessons in coffee shops throughout downtown Ann Arbor. “Going downtown [from Thurston] is a trip, in a good sense,” she says. “It’s a treat. Sometimes it can be chaotic, when the students first come in, or when Art Fair is happening. It’s nice being so close and yet having a little bit of separation distance.”
Her daughter earned her MBA and now lives in Massachusetts. Her son, a captain with American Airlines, is based in Chicago. (“We’re right in the middle,” says Donna.) Both have children of their own, and when they’re in town, Donna enjoys taking the grandkids to the Wave Field on North Campus, a five-minute drive away.
Through three of her tutees, all U-M-affiliated, Donna has begun a post-retirement career as a translator of Italian literature. Her works include contemporary poetry, children’s books, and the memoirs of an Italian soldier who fought in World War I. Donna has given talks at Literati Bookstore, and her publications can be found on the shelves at the Ann Arbor District Library.
A Thurstonite for thirty years, Donna has seen much change and development in the neighborhood. On the one hand, her kids were upset that the construction of a new school building might affect the neighboring nature area—some trees were transplanted and others were cut down. On the other, she appreciates especially the new social and cultural spots that have popped up. “Rappourt is great, right around the corner. Out on Plymouth Rd., it’s been nice to get more little shops and restaurants. And we’ve got the best old-fashioned Carpenter Brothers Hardware.
“There are so many new homes being built, so many new developments and roundabouts. There’s a lot of motion. We have new neighbors next door with a little boy. And on this street, there’s another family, with little kids.”
She smiles. “We’re now in the Old Guard on the street.”