IT IS not by chance that Dr James de Valera Mansfield, MA, LL B, who left us on December 16th in his prime, is buried near the late President Erskine Childers in Derralossary, Roundwood, Co Wicklow. They were friends with a similar political vision.
As a student, James won many distinctions and prizes. He graduated at UCD with a first-class honours BA degree in economics. At King's Inns, he became auditor of the Law Society.
His work involved improving Irish living conditions. As a director of RGDATA he introduced self-service, having studied the system in Sweden. As director of the Irish Management Institute in the late 1950s, he developed the institute's information, training and library services. He conducted several study tours of management centres throughout Europe. In Austria he met the love of his life, who became his wife. interpreter and translator.
His continental career followed. A research fellowship in Frankfurt-am-Main led to a thesis "Management development in German firms", for which he received a PhD at UCD.
In the 1960s, he was human resources specialist at the International Management Institute in Geneva. He continued this work as director of PA International Management Consultants in Zurich, meriting an entry in Who's Who in Europe in 1974.
He trained young managers, who are his legacy as successful managers from Greece to Belgium and from Germany to Ireland. In the same methodical way, be planned his garden in the early I980s in Roundwood, where he was active also in the local historical society. Only recently. he planted hundreds of his favourite flower bulbs - for enjoyment in the coming spring. He will see them grow with the eyes of his wife Agatha, children James Jr. and Adrianna, and grandchildren.