Former Senator Mansfield was born in New York City on March 16, 1903, shortly after his parents emigrated from Ireland (his father is from Co. Kilkenny and his mother from Co. Limerick). In 1906 he and his family moved to Great Falls, Montana. He served as a seaman in the U.S. Navy during World War I at the age of 14, and then went on to serve in the U.S. Army and the Marines respectively from 1919 to 1922. Upon leaving the service, he worked as a miner and mining engineer in Butte, Montana and attended the Montana School of Mines from 1927 to 1928. He graduated from Montana State University in 1933, earning his masters degree from the same institution in 1934. He also attended UCLA from 1936 to 1937, and from 1933 to 1942 he was professor of history and political science at Montana State University.

His political career was launched in 1942, when he was elected for the first of four times as a Democrat to congress. He was elected to the U.S. Senate in 1952 and from 1961 to 1977 he held the position of Senate Majority Leader. After retiring, he served as C.S. Ambassador to Japan from 1977 to 1989, making him the longest standing Ambassador to Japan in U.S. history. He was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom Award (the nation’s highest non-military honor) by President Reagan, and the Grand Cordon of the Order of the Rising Sun by Japanese Prime Minister Takeshita.

Senator Mansfield now works as adviser for Far Eastern Affairs at Goldman, Sachs &Co. He and his wife, Maureen, reside in Washington, D.C.