EXHIBIT 99(b)
                                       
                                                  NEWS RELEASE

Release Date:  Immediate                  Modine Manufacturing Company

Contact:  Gerald J. Sweda                 1500 DeKoven Avenue
                                          Racine, Wisconsin 53403-2552
Telephone:     (414) 636-1361


Modine board elects new director

     RACINE, Wis., Feb. 8, 1999 - The Modine Manufacturing Company
(Nasdaq: MODI) Board of Directors has elected Marsha Williams to serve as
a new director of the corporation, expanding the number of board members
to ten.

     Since May 1998, Williams has been chief administrative officer for
Crate & Barrel, a privately held specialty chain owned by the German
company Otto Versand.  Previously, she had been vice president &
treasurer of Amoco Corporation and Carson Pirie Scott & Company, and vice
president of The First National Bank of Chicago.

     Williams is a 1973 graduate of Wellesley College and earned an MBA
in 1976 at the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business.

     Modine is a world leader at solving heating and cooling problems in
vehicles, buildings, and off-highway and industrial equipment.  Modine
has annualized sales of more than $1 billion and has 8,800 employees
worldwide.