Leho Männiksoo

Leho Männiksoo was born on 12 June 1933 in Tallinn. He spent his childhood in the Rahumäe district of the city and began school there. As a boy his interests included geography, reading travel writing, aviation, sport and school theatre.

Circumstances forced him to begin working life at 17. Alongside his studies he took a job as a construction labourer together with a classmate. During his service in the Soviet army he worked as an interpreter for the border troops at Sõrve on the island of Saaremaa. He later studied journalism at the University of Tartu, graduating in 1972 with a thesis on active formats in the Estonian Radio schedule.

Männiksoo worked at Estonian Radio from 1967 to 1996 as an editor of children's and youth programmes, becoming a senior editor in 1987. He arrived at the time the famous Estonian Radio Boys' Club was being created and was one of its initiators and leaders. Bringing up boys to become capable men was, in the words of ERR, the mission of his whole radio career.

In the summers he organised camps for young traffic inspectors and young sailors, and he was one of the mentors of the Estonian Radio Young Reporters' Club. Journalists who learned under him at the radio house included Kalev Vapper, Ilmar Taska, Olav Osolin, Andres Raid, Jaan Laugamõts and Tiit Terik. He also led the radio's young traffic inspectors' headquarters and presented a series on road safety.

The series he brought to listeners included "Tormitraavel", "Messijutud", "Seigad ja seiklused" and "Kiikerkava", as well as the educational programmes "Tarkuseturbiin" and "Ajakabinet". In 1987 he launched "Raaliklubi" to spread knowledge of computers. Ahead of the 1980 Olympic sailing regatta in Tallinn he founded the Estonian Radio sailing society. He wrote more than 15 radio plays and serial stories for the children's programme "Mikriveski", and he was the screenwriter of the documentary films "Poiste saar" (1977) and "Vana paat" (1979).

When his editorial post ended in spring 1996 he continued to make programmes for Vikerraadio until 1998, including "Kesköömosaiik" and "Inimene ja tiivad", a series about aviation, one of his lifelong hobbies. He then became editor and later editor in chief of Eesti Jahimees, a hunting and nature magazine, and led an eco scouting movement. His books included a history of the Boys' Club broadcasts (1978), "Mikriveski" stories (1983, with R. Made), the scouting book "Aus mäng" (1993) and "Anton Õunapuu ja meie" (2005).

Männiksoo's lifelong interests were aviation, sailing, nature and hunting, and several of them found their way into his programmes and his later editorial work at Eesti Jahimees. Public reports of his death did not give details of his family, beyond ERR's condolences to those close to him.

Leho Männiksoo died on Sunday 18 October 2026, aged 93. His death was announced by the Estonian public broadcaster ERR on 20 October 2026, and was also reported in English by Daily Baltic. The place and cause of death were not made public.

His funeral service was arranged for 23 October 2026 at 13:00 in the ceremonial hall of the Memoris funeral home at Valdeku 113 in Tallinn, followed at 14:00 by burial at Rahumäe cemetery, in the district where he was born and grew up.

For generations of Estonian children Männiksoo was a familiar voice and organiser, and through the Boys' Club, the Young Reporters' Club and his summer camps he gave many young people their first experience of radio, sailing and teamwork. A number of the journalists he mentored went on to prominent careers in Estonian broadcasting and writing. He was recognised with the annual prize of the Estonian SSR Union of Journalists in 1985 and the title of Honoured Journalist of the Estonian SSR in 1987, and his life and work are recorded in the Estonian Encyclopaedia.