John O’Shaughnessy, 95, passed away peacefully on April 11, 2023 at The Villages Hospital.
Born in Ashton, Manchester (UK), the son of John and Mary O’Shaughnessy, he joined the Royal Air Force at the very end of WW2 and saw post-war service in India (where he heard Gandhi speak), Pakistan, Iraq and Egypt. After graduating in Economics from Glasgow University, he held senior positions in British industry before moving to academe; migrating to the US, he taught at Columbia University from 1967- 1993 in the Graduate School of Business, after which he became Professor Emeritus. He published some significant works on consumption including Why People Buy (Oxford, 1987).
John was married for sixty-four years to Marjorie Jackson, who predeceased him in January 2018, and they had a home in the Villages from 1998 and full-time from 2001. John and Marjorie were convivial party-givers in Harmswood and keen members of its play-reading group. He continued to write throughout his retirement, publishing his last book Consumer Behavior (500 pages) at the age of 85. He is survived by two loving sons, Nicholas and Andrew.
