John MAYFIELD 12.2.1936 – 14.11.2006
Dr John Mayfield, PhD (Harvard) was a leader in education as a teacher, inspector, administrator and author and instigator of ideas. He was recognised as being visionary and yet realistically practical.
He was involved in the planning and governance of public and private schools and in the design, financing and management of education buildings for more than 30 years. In that time he provided inspirational leadership, innovation and the sharing of ideas locally and internationally.
His many achievements included the planning and establishment of shared campus schools, the co-location of government and non-government schools, the sharing of facilities with the local community alongside the recognition and fostering of lifelong learning.
He was Chairman of the OECD Programme on Educational Buildings Steering Committee from 1985- 1988,
In 1992 he set up a conference series Learning, Environment, Technology – Australia (LETA) to bring together educators, architects and ICT tools for learning. This resulted in an introduction to Learning Environments Australasia ‘LEA’ (then known as Council of Educational Facility Planners ‘CEFPI’) through the keynote speakers, George Copa & Bruce Jilk at LETA 94.
However we particularly honour John as being vitally instrumental in establishing LEA in Australia. He was an enthusiastic and energetic man, believing strongly in the idea of a “learning community”.
In 1999 John found that together with him there was a small group of Australians attending the A4LE International Conference in Baltimore. He could see the benefits of extending this organisation to Australia.
Subsequently he arranged meetings bringing together a core group to work with him and the International A4LE Board to form the first Australian Chapter of Learning Environments Australasia. This was achieved in 2000 in Adelaide, South Australia. He received a special International Award for this initiative.
John saw the importance of investing in our youth and commenced a professional development program for younger members. This program has continued to develop in our Region and is now known and supported as the Mayfield Project.
John had a great capacity to bring people together to share ideas about serious and profound issues and was never thwarted by barriers of language, culture, nationality or geography, or by bureaucracy.
