Hermann N. Mangels
- President, Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, 1956–1961
- Born: March 19, 1897
- Died: June 17, 1961
Hermann N. Mangels served as president and chief executive officer of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco from March 1, 1956 to March 1, 1961. With forty-four years of service, he was the longest-employed staff member of the Reserve Bank when he retired.
Mangels was born in San Francisco in 1897. He finished grammar school and went to work, meanwhile continuing high school at night.
Before joining the Federal Reserve System, he worked as messenger at the National Association of Credit Men and at Anglo & London Paris National Bank. He then worked as stenographer, bookkeeper, and teller at The Bank of Monterey in Monterey, California.
Mangels joined the staff of the San Francisco Fed in July 1916 as an adding machine operator in the Check Department. Subsequently, he played an important role in the establishment of all of the Reserve Bank’s branches, starting in June 1917 as acting chief clerk at Spokane (no longer a branch location). He held the same title when the Seattle branch opened that September, then was acting cashier for Portland’s opening the next month and again for Salt Lake City in April 1918.
Mangels also served briefly as assistant cashier at Los Angeles when a branch was opened there, and was transferred back to San Francisco as an assistant cashier in 1920. He was appointed cashier in 1943, vice president in 1944, and first vice president in 1947.
During his career with the San Francisco Fed, Mangels served as a member or chairman of numerous Federal Reserve System committees, of committees of the Conference of Presidents of the Federal Reserve Banks, and of the Retirement System of the Federal Reserve Banks. He served as an alternate and as a member on the Federal Open Market Committee, on which the San Francisco Fed is represented every third year. The FOMC has great responsibility because of its influence on monetary and credit conditions, which it exercises through its direction of Reserve System purchases and sales in the open market of United States Government securities or bankers’ acceptances.
In 1960, during the second session of the 86th US Congress, Mangels was one of three Reserve Bank presidents invited to testify before Subcommittee No. 3 of the Committee on Banking and Currency of the House of Representatives on bills providing for the retirement of Federal Reserve Bank stock.
A scan through employee newsletters of the San Francisco Fed show Mangels was heavily involved in local happenings as well. He served as president of the Bank Club and an editor of the newsletter.
Mangels died in 1961, shortly after retirement.
Written by the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco. See disclaimer.
