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From the Strib...
John Roberts Mitchell, poet, teacher and storyteller, died Thursday at 66 after a career of 36 years at Augsburg College as an English professor.
Six feet tall with thick white hair, Mitchell was friendly and outspoken. A well-known personality at the college, his presence was said to fill a room.
He was born in Decatur, Ala., in 1940, the son of Katie Marvin Thompson and Charles Truitt Mitchell. As a young man, he earned a bachelor's degree from Maryville College in Maryville, Tenn., and a master's degree in English from the University of Tennessee. He joined the Peace Corps, which took him to Liberia in West Africa. There he met his wife, ! Jean, also in the Peace Corps.
Mitchell began work at Augsburg in 1968 and later took a two-year sabbatical to study film at San Francisco State University.
He had a passion for poetry, writing and film. "He was the literate man," said his friend Prof. Robert Cowgill, an Augsburg colleague. He remembered Mitchell's command of the language, eloquence as a speaker and his capacity for insight into art and people. Mitchell could also nettle people by speaking the uncomfortable truth, Cowgill said.
In 1995, Mitchell helped Cowgill open the Oak Street Cinema, a Minneapolis theater that showed classic films. After the show, Mitchell would stand under the marquis and people would gather around to hear his observationsabout the film.
As a teacher, Mitchell worked hard in the classroom and gave freely of his time to students after class, listening to them and talking with them for hours, said Ronald Palosaari, a retired professor of American literature at Augsburg. Mitchell could be seen correcting papers ! late int o the night at the Hard Times Cafe.
As a younger man, he liked to play tennis. And as a teenager, he collected Indian artifacts along the Tennessee River.
He is survived by his wife, Jean; children Judith and Nathan of Minneapolis; and a sister, Kate Cooper of Alabama.
A memorial service will be held at 3:30 p.m. on Sept. 8 at Augsburg College.
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Mitchell and Cowgill honored us by Both attending our wedding-- if this obit is correct, he died on our 10th anniversary--and I remember fondly the story of him cackling with other Augsburg-related guests as they plotted and joked, commandeering extra wine, living it up.
John Roberts Mitchell, poet, teacher and storyteller, died Thursday at 66 after a career of 36 years at Augsburg College as an English professor.
Six feet tall with thick white hair, Mitchell was friendly and outspoken. A well-known personality at the college, his presence was said to fill a room.
He was born in Decatur, Ala., in 1940, the son of Katie Marvin Thompson and Charles Truitt Mitchell. As a young man, he earned a bachelor's degree from Maryville College in Maryville, Tenn., and a master's degree in English from the University of Tennessee. He joined the Peace Corps, which took him to Liberia in West Africa. There he met his wife, ! Jean, also in the Peace Corps.
Mitchell began work at Augsburg in 1968 and later took a two-year sabbatical to study film at San Francisco State University.
He had a passion for poetry, writing and film. "He was the literate man," said his friend Prof. Robert Cowgill, an Augsburg colleague. He remembered Mitchell's command of the language, eloquence as a speaker and his capacity for insight into art and people. Mitchell could also nettle people by speaking the uncomfortable truth, Cowgill said.
In 1995, Mitchell helped Cowgill open the Oak Street Cinema, a Minneapolis theater that showed classic films. After the show, Mitchell would stand under the marquis and people would gather around to hear his observationsabout the film.
As a teacher, Mitchell worked hard in the classroom and gave freely of his time to students after class, listening to them and talking with them for hours, said Ronald Palosaari, a retired professor of American literature at Augsburg. Mitchell could be seen correcting papers ! late int o the night at the Hard Times Cafe.
As a younger man, he liked to play tennis. And as a teenager, he collected Indian artifacts along the Tennessee River.
He is survived by his wife, Jean; children Judith and Nathan of Minneapolis; and a sister, Kate Cooper of Alabama.
A memorial service will be held at 3:30 p.m. on Sept. 8 at Augsburg College.
-------------------------------
Mitchell and Cowgill honored us by Both attending our wedding-- if this obit is correct, he died on our 10th anniversary--and I remember fondly the story of him cackling with other Augsburg-related guests as they plotted and joked, commandeering extra wine, living it up.