Gerhard Mansbach (Gerry) was born in Kassel, Germany, on December 5, 1928. He immigrated to New York City on November 14, 1936, during the Nazi era of Jewish persecution in Germany. Mansbach graduated from Dewitt Clinton High School in New York City before obtaining a degree from the University of Chicago. He went on to become a self-taught computer programmer in the 1960s while working with punch card systems for the Department of Public Works in Boston. There he produced a data-driven United States Commerce Department of Public Roads report, "Cape Cod Tourist Study," measuring the mid-1960s tourism impact on Cape Cod.

From 1969-1980, Mansbach was employed by the Charles Stark Draper Laboratory at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) where he programmed guidance systems for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Apollo Missions and for General Motors autobody-stamping machine robotics for Fiat S.p.A. (Fabbrica Italiana Automobili Torino).

In retirement, Mansbach created a musical brailer for the vision-impaired; a software product for fluid-inclusion studies, "Overlay Assistant," with spectrometer for Virginia Tech's Geology Department; and a biosensor monitoring software for Biological Monitoring, Incorporated (BMI) in Blacksburg, Virginia.