He dropped out of college twice and served in the United States Marine Corps in the Vietnam War for nine months in 1969.
[2] He then did some graduate work in cybernetics at San Jose State University and was hired as a futurologist by SRI International (formerly the Stanford Research Institute) in Menlo Park, California, in 1975.
[1] Mandel's consulting practice focused on social trend analysis and forecasting for a wide range of consumer products and technology companies, and he published several scenarios reports in collaboration with the Values and Lifestyles (VALS) program at SRI and as a senior consultant in SRI's Business Intelligence Center.
In addition to his work at SRI, Mandel was an editor of Time Online[3] and "one of the most prolific citizens of the on-line community known as the Well,"[4] where he was considered "a central figure.
He died eleven days later on April 6, 1995, at Stanford University Hospital, listening to Beethoven's Ninth Symphony with his wife Nana.