Mansfield, James De Valera, 1918-1995, former Jesuit Novice
- Person
- 21 June 1918-16 November 1995
Born: 21 June 1918, Tritonville Road, Sandymount, Dublin, County Dublin
Entered: 07 September 1936, St Mary's, Emo, County Laois
Died: 16 November 1995, Roundwood, County Wicklow, Ireland
Left Society of Jesus: 12 June 1937
Father was a manager at Johnston, Mooney & O’Brien confectionary.
Fourth of nine boys and one girl.
Early education was at a local Primary ~school and at 14 he went to O’Connells School (1932-1936)
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/117229570/james-de_valera-mansfield
Dr James de Valera “Séamus” Mansfield
BIRTH
21 Jun 1918
Sandymount, County Dublin, Ireland
DEATH
16 Dec 1995 (aged 77)
Roundwood, County Wicklow, Ireland
BURIAL
Derralossary Churchyard Cemetery
Roundwood, County Wicklow, Ireland
Ainm Gaeilge
Dochtúir Séamus de Valera Móinbhíol
Known to his parents & siblings by the Irish form of his name, Seamus was the 7th of 10 children of John Joseph & Elizabeth (née McGowan) Mansfield of Sandymount, Co. Dublin, Ireland. He was born at the family home on Tritonville Road.
Obituary: Wicklow People (Ireland), Thursday, 25 January 1996;
Dr. de V. Mansfield
ROUNDWOOD lost one of its most colorful and respected residents with the passing of Dr. James de Valera Mansfield shortly before Christmas.
Dr. de V. Mansfield, as he signed himself, traveled extensively in Europe during a varied career as one of the freshest and most influential thinkers in the field of management, but it was in Roundwood that he finally made a home for himself and his wife Agatha.
The distinguished career he was to follow was signaled early on by his illustrious student days when he won many plaudits and prizes. He graduated from U.C.D. with first class honors B.A. Degree in economics before enrolling in King's Inns where he became auditor of the Law Society.
Many Roles
During his working life he held many roles. He revolutionized shopping in his country when, as a director of the retailers' organization, RGDATA, he introduced the system of self-service which he had studied in Sweden.
As Director of the Irish Management Institute in the late 1950s, he developed the institute's training, information and library services. He also spread his ideas throughout Europe though a series of study tours, on one of which he met his Austrian interpreter and translator Agatha.
A research fellowship in Frankfurt followed and the resulting thesis earned him a PhD from U.C.D. He then worked as a human resources specialist at the International Management Institute in Geneva and later as a director of a major management consultants firm in Zurich.
Zurich also became the childhood home of his daughter, a former Bunratty Castle singer who now works as a teacher of German at Aravon School in Bray, and his son who is pursuing a successful career as a film-maker with the Walt Disney studios in Los Angeles.
All this time Dr. de V. Mansfield was contributing to American, Swiss and German publications, bringing his theories and thoughts to an ever wider audience.
But his contributions to something as neighborly as the Rowndwood Historical Society journal gave him equal pleasure. He was an active member of the society and late last year, his chronicle of the life of his great, great grand-uncle, the one-time curate of Glendalough, Fr. John Gowan, was published in the journal's most recent edition.
The creative side of Dr. de V. Mansfield was also known to those who stopped to admire the marvelous garden he created at his Derralossary Road home over many years of careful planning and pruning.
Life Story
Less known is the fact that, at the time of his death, he was writing the life story of his beloved Agatha through the eyes of the teddy bear who accompanied her through war-time sorrows, challenging times as a scholarship student in New York and all through married life.
He left the garden and book for Agatha to tend when he passed away with painfully little warning on December 16 last. He was buried at Derralossary, close to his good friend, the late President Erskine Childers.
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Obituary: Management Institute News (Dublin Ireland), January 1996;
James de Valera Mansfield
When the Irish Management Institute was founded in 1952 it was a concept new to Ireland. The conventional wisdom was that managers were born, not made. The lecture room had nothing to offer the business process. Hard knocks in the tough world of experience was the only way.
When the Council sought to find a replacement for the IMI's pioneering director/general, Paul Quigley, in 1960, they chose James de Valera Mansfield. His academic background was exemplary – an MA (First Class Honors) in Economics, based on a thesis 'Irish Industry and State Intervention'; first place, including the Swift MacNeill Prize, in his LLB degree in 1953; BL from Kings Inns and TCD – another first place; several medals from the Law Students Debating Society.
This academic achievement was complimented by practical experience in the insurance industry and tourism (where he spent seven years as executive assistant to the Chairman of the then Tourism Board). This was followed by five years as general secretary and director of the Irish Retailers' Association (RGDATA).
He joined the Irish Management Institute at an interesting point in the Institute's life. It had done much to increase the awareness of Irish managers about the necessity for formal training and the need to professionalize the management process.
Much remained to be done to broaden that understanding at Government level and throughout business. James Mansfield helped to develop and deepen that process. He carried out several study tours of management centres and institutes in Europe. This study resulted in a report to Government and to the OECD on the need to create a national management development facility in Ireland.
It was during James Mansfield's period of office as director general that Ivor Kenny – who would become his successor – began the critical process of broadening the Institute's Management Development Unit, recruiting four specialists who formed the nucleus of the rapid development of the IMI during the following decades.
It was to pursue interests awakened by his earlier visits to Europe that James Mansfield left the institute in 1963 to create a new career in research and management development, first in Germany where he earned a doctorate in 1967, and later in the International Management Institute, Geneva, as a human resources specialist. This led to further distinction as an international management consultant in Germany and Switzerland.
In 1983, at the age of 65, with his wife Jagoda Agatha, his daughter and son , he returned to Ireland where he continued his international work while his health allowed.
James de Valera Mansfield is remembered with gratitude for a unique contribution to the shaping of the Irish Management Institute. To his family, our deep sympathy. May he rest in peace.
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✞ Dr. James de Valera Mansfield is buried at Derralossary Churchyard Cemetery, Co. Wicklow, Ireland.