Donald J. Mitchell

Donald Jerome Mitchell (May 8, 1923 – September 27, 2003) served as a Republican member of the '''United States House of Representatives''' from New York, 1973-1983.

Early life

Donald J. "Don" Mitchell, a native of Upstate New York's Mohawk Valley with ancesteral family roots tracing back to the American Revolution, as well as Mohawk Indian blood on his father's side, was born in Ilion, New York, in 1923. He was the oldest child of Donald G. Mitchell and Winnifred Packard Mitchell of Herkimer, New York. He attended the Herkimer Public School System, graduating from Herkimer High School in 1940.

After returning home following his military service during World War II, in 1945 he married Margaretta "Gretta" Wilson LeVee, the daughter of E. Allen LeVee and Margaret Tinker LeVee, of Little Falls, New York.^[1]

Married for over 57 years at the time of the Congressman's death in 2003, the Mitchell's had three children—Gretchen, Cynthia, and Allen.

Military Service

During World War II, Mitchell served as a carrier-based fighter pilot in the United States Navy from 1942 until 1945. Following the war, he completed a bachelor's degree in Optometry at Hobart College in 1949, and went on to earn a master's degree from Columbia University in 1950. In the early 1950s, he founded an optometry practice in Herkimer, New York.

An avid pilot in private life, Dr. Mitchell re-enlisted in the Navy in 1951, and served as a Naval Flight Instructor in Pensacola, Florida, from 1951–1953, during the Korean War.

Life after the Military, Professionsl Career, Civic Service

After his second tour of duty with the Navy, Mitchell resumed his optometry practice in Herkimer, NY, where he was elected to the City Council (1954–1957) and served as Mayor (1957–1960), and was active in numerous civic and charitable organizations. Among those were: the Boy Scouts of America, the American Civil Defense Association, the Central Association for the Blind, the Eastern New York Chapter of the Nature Conservancy, the Mohawk Valley Chapter of the American Red Cross, the American Cancer Society, the United Way, and the Herkimer County Historical Society. Additionally, he served as a member of the Herkimer Zoning Board of Appeals from 1963 until 1964, when he was elected to the New York State Assembly.

Political career

In 1964, Mitchell was elected to represent Herkimer County in the New York State Assembly (1965–1972) and served in the Republican leadership as the Assembly Majority Whip from 1969 until 1972.

In 1972, he was elected to the United States Congress where he represented what is now New York's 31st Congressional District. After being successfully re-elected to a second term by a wide margin in 1974, he then ran unopposed to for three more terms,^[2] serving altogether for 10 years from January 3, 1973 until January 3, 1983.

While in the United States Congress he served on the House Armed Services Committee, and was elected by his colleagues and served 4 years in the House Repbulican Leadership as Regional Whip for New England and the Mid-Atlantic States.^[3]

Among other accomplishments in Congress, he was responsible for establishing "Leatherstocking Country", a nine-county tourism district in Central New York state, and played a key role in establishing Fort Stanwix National Monument as a unit of the National Park System.

He and a coalition of other House members also started a campaign in the early 1970s to persuade the Defense Department to award more military contracts and employ more people in the Northeast, which was losing Defense funding and contracts to the South. And in 1974, Mitchell led another successful campaign to prevent the Air Force from cutting 1,500 jobs at the Rome Air Development Center at Griffiss Air Force Base in Rome, N.Y.^[4]

He was a founder of, and the first chairman of the Northeast/Midwest Coalition in the U.S. House of Representatives, and was a founding member of the Tourism Caucus in the House of Representatives.^[5]

Always well liked by his colleagues on both sides of the aisle, Congressman Mitchell has been described by a Capitol Hill legislative aide as, "without doubt the nicest, most decent Member of Congress I ever knew or worked with -- totally honest, of unquestionable integrity, always receptive to considering all points-of-view, with nothing beyond doing the very best possible for his Country at heart, and willing to work tirelessly for the betterment and continued welfare of his constituents in the Mohawk Valley in Upstate New York."^[6]

Life after Congress

In 1984, Mitchell retired from public service and returned to Herkimer, New York. There he resumed his optometry practice, he and his wife Gretta dividing their time between homes in the Mohawk Valley and in Cedar Key, Florida.

Following his retirement, Congressman Mitchell received a number of tributes of various sorts.^[7] Among these was the naming of the Veterans Administration hospital clinic at Griffiss Air Force Base near Rome, New York, after him—which was formally designated in a bill signed into law by President Clinton to be known as the "Donald J. Mitchell VA Outpatient Clinic". The facility provides primary care and other health care services for veterans in the greater Utica-Rome-Syracuse area in Central New York State.^[8]

Also, a highway bridge over West Canada Creek in the Mohawk Valley near the Village of Herkimer was officially designated the "Donald J. Mitchell Bridge" in his honor.

Former Congressman Mitchell died on September 27, 2003, of complications associated with his lengthy battle late in life with Parkinson's disease. Upon his passing, the Utica Observer-Dispatch newspaper noted: "If anyone can be heralded for having led an exemplary life, its former U.S. Congressman Donald J. Mitchell. . . Mitchell managed to balance a vigorous commitment to community and country without ever forsaking family and friends -- and he left a legacy of pride along a path that took him from the Mohawk Valley to the Nation's Capital and back again."^[9]

Following memorial services attended by, among many others, various former colleagues from the U.S. Congress and the New York State Assembly, his casket, escorted by both active duty and American Legion veterans color guards, and borne by uniform personnel representing each branch of the U.S. Military Services, was interred with full military honors at the hillside Oak Hill Cemetery overlooking a tributary of the Mohawk River in his hometown of Herkimer.

References/Footnotes

1. ^ Margaretta Wilson LeVee, a cousin to President Woodrow Wilson, is related to Thomas Tinker who came to America aboard the Mayflower (cf. Mayflower Manifest: "Passenger List : . . . Thomas Tinker; the Wife of Thomas Tinker; the Son of Thomas Tinker. . . ."
2. ^ "The Herkimer Evening Telegram", Herkimer, NY, September 29, 2003.
3. ^ Congressional Directory; 97th Congress, United States Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C., 1981.
4. ^ "The Sun Sentinel", Fort Lauderdale, FL - Oct. 2, 2003.
5. ^ "The Herkimer Evening Telegram", Herkimer, NY, September 29, 2003.
6. ^ John Gingles, "My Years as a Capitol Hill Legislative Aide", from A Personal Memoir, Washington, D.C., 2007.
7. ^ New York Times, October 1, 2003.
8. ^ U.S. Dept. of Veterans Affairs, VA Healthcare Network Website, "Upstate New York", 2010.[1]
9. ^ Utica Observer-Dispatch, Utica, NY, Oct. 1, 2003.

Sources

• Donald J. Mitchell at the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress

New York Assembly
Preceded by Leo Lawrence	New York State Assembly, Herkimer County 1965	Succeeded by District abolished
Preceded by New district	New York State Assembly, 122nd District 1966	Succeeded by Louis Folmer
Preceded by Harvey Lifset	New York State Assembly, 112th District 1967–1972	Succeeded by K. Daniel Haley
United States House of Representatives
Preceded by Robert C. McEwen	Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from New York's 31st congressional district 1973–1983	Succeeded by Jack Kemp

Persondata
Name	Mitchell, Donald J.
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	May 8, 1923
Place of birth
Date of death	September 27, 2003
Place of death