THE MANSFIELDS AT CHRISTMAS

About the Book

This collection of Mansfield family Christmas letters began in Paris, France, in 1976, the year that Citibank transferred Chuck from its New York headquarters to its main branch there. The co-authors’ children, Chas, John and Katie, were aged eight, six and nineteen months, respectively, when the family moved abroad. By Christmas Day all were homesick and, the next morning, dismantled the Christmas tree and took off for a vacation at Switzerland, where Chas and John learned to ski.

Despite a few gaps, the letter has become an annual tradition, as well as the target of several humorous barbs. For example, Chuck’s fellow Chaminade High School alumnus Joe Lucchesi once told a group of mutual friends at a holiday party that “The reason I like Chuck’s Christmas letter so much is that I can leave it on my nightstand and read a chapter a night.” Likewise, Chuck’s Chaminade classmates and football teammates Tom Kiley, Earl Kirmser and Carl LoGalbo once asked the gathering at his 50th birthday party, “When did Chuck plan his first Christmas letter?” Of several multiple-choice answers, their first was “At birth!” and it brought the house down. Just recently Tom has written, “Better answer. In the womb!” Not to be outdone, paraphrasing Jeremiah 1:5, Carl has added “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I dedicated you; a Christmas Letter Writer to the nations I appointed you.”

The letters have actually and inadvertently provided clan Mansfield with a remarkable and highly detailed family history. It is for this reason that both co-authors, now octogenarians, have decided to reproduce them all in a single volume for posterity. They hope that family, friends and other readers will find it worthwhile.

About the Author

Mary Ann (Locasto) Mansfi eld contributed to secondary and college mathematics in the classroom as an innovator and outside it as a motivator and instructor. She has also been named a Founder of the National Museum of Mathematics (MoMath) in New York City. She holds a 1966 B.A. degree magna cum laude from Marymount College and a 1967 M.A.T. with honors in Mathematics from Johns Hopkins University. Chuck Mansfield graduated from the College of the Holy Cross in 1966 with an A.B. (Sociology). Commissioned an offi cer in the U.S. Marine Corps Reserve, he deployed to Vietnam in 1968 and served as a platoon commander. Later, he received an M.B.A. (Finance) from New York University and worked in the U.S. and abroad. A former director/trustee of the mutual funds of Federated Hermes, Inc., a $912-billion Pittsburgh-based complex listed on the New York Stock Exchange, he served from 1999 through 2020 and is now a director emeritus.
This is their second book and his twelfth.