ABOUT GEORGE MITCHELL

Rick Archer's Note:

As we shall see, Maria Ballantyne's brother George Mitchell is a true American hero.  Considering my admiration for this man, I deeply regret to say I never had the chance to meet him.  Sorry to say, Mr. Mitchell passed away in 2013 before I ever heard of him.  That said, due to my curious relationship with Maria Ballantyne, I immediately felt a powerful connection to this man.  Not just that, I felt compelled to add George Mitchell's story to my book. 

At first I resisted.  Good grief, what am I doing?  I don't even know this man!  I knew why I felt the need to share the personal story of Maria Ballantyne, but what business did I have adding chapters about a man I never met to my book?  But I did it anyway.  Sometimes I do things that do not make a lot of sense because I have learned to trust my instincts.

Then one day the answer came to me.  My mistake was thinking the Magic Carpet Ride was about 'me'.  Wrong.  This book is about FATE and how it affects our lives.  During the course of writing my book, I have come to realize there are times when I will not be the focus, but rather a writer given the responsibility to tell an important story.  Furthermore, due to a unique perspective gained from my relationship with Maria Ballantyne, I daresay I am the only person who can truly explain the amazing role that FATE played in the life of George Mitchell.  

In his later years, George Mitchell had this to say.

"I quickly learned that a good education, hard work, dedication, willing mentors, and a few lucky breaks meant the difference between success and failure."

If ever there was a man who understood the value of a Simple Act of Kindness, it would be George Mitchell.  I hope you enjoy reading about him as much as I did writing about him.

HOW RICK ARCHER DISCOVERED GEORGE MITCHELL

Mrs. Ballantyne's stories about 'George' would drive me crazy.  She made it sound like her brother was rich, but how was this possible?  Given the humble beginnings which Mrs. Ballantyne and her brother faced as children, I could not imagine where his wealth would come from.  My curiosity was always on fire, but not once did Mrs. Ballantyne offer a clue.  Nor could I look him up.  Always referring to him as 'George', perhaps he was born with a first name only.  Ultimately, the stumbling block was my cluelessness about Mrs. Ballantyne's maiden name.   

I discovered George Mitchell's identity totally by accident one morning in September 2013.  I had just started writing my first book, so I went to the Internet to see if I could find a picture of Mrs. Ballantyne.  First I typed 'Maria Ballantyne' into Google.  Then I clicked the 'Images' feature.

A photographer from the Houston Chronicle had taken a picture of Mrs. Ballantyne hugging some guy at the 100th anniversary celebration of Galveston's Hotel Galvez.  I recognized Mrs. Ballantyne immediately, but not the man.  Reading further, the lower caption said Mrs. Ballantyne was his sister. 

His name was 'George Mitchell'. 

George?  Oh my, this has to be him!!  I had no idea who George Mitchell was, so I typed his name into Google.  To my surprise, this man had a Wikipedia profile.  Whoa!  That was my first clue there might be more here than I bargained for.   

The moment I read Mr. Mitchell's Wikipedia profile, I was stunned.  George Mitchell was a billionaire!  I just sat there staring at the screen.  I was so much in awe that my fingers could not type.  Too paralyzed to continue, I just sat back in my chair trying to wrap my mind around who this guy was.

Finally I snapped out of it and laughed.  Look who Mrs. Ballantyne has been hiding from me all this time!  Hmm.  That sure was sneaky of her to change her last name.

The more I read about George Mitchell, the more amazed I became.  I knew Mrs. Ballantyne kept saying her brother was special, but, well, this guy was way beyond special.

I would like to share the details of George Mitchell's life.  After I explain some of what he accomplished, I have something very curious to add you would never know unless I told you.

WHO IS GEORGE MITCHELL?

George Mitchell had an amazing career.  He was an energy tycoon, real estate developer, and philanthropist.  George Mitchell graduated first in his class of 1940 at Texas A&M with degrees in petrochemical engineering and geology.  However, he also graduated without a cent to his name.  Not a problem.  Mitchell would parlay his education into a legendary career.

Mitchell spent four years in the Army Corps of Engineers during World War II. Afterward, he ventured out with his older brother Johnny on a wildcatter operation.  His early success led to the formation of Mitchell Energy & Development.  George Mitchell used his A&M training plus his God-given talent to sniff out the right places to drill.  His oil company was credited with 200 oil and 350 natural gas discoveries.  

Mitchell is called the 'Father of Fracking', the extraction of gas from shale.  Ignore the controversy.  When used properly, Fracking (short for 'hydraulic fracturing'), provides untold economic benefits with minimal environmental drawbacks.  (When used improperly, well, that is a different story.) 

Fracking uses pressurized water to crack open rock formations in order to release oil and natural gas.  No one had succeeded until Mitchell came along.  Nor did success come quickly.  Throughout his 15 years of failure, Mitchell was forced to endure the wisdom of the crowd that said it could not be done.  Like Thomas Edison, Mitchell was one of those people who refused to quit till he got it right.  Thank goodness he stayed with it.  Mitchell's shale revolution freed America from its heavy dependence on Arab oil. 

Daniel Yergin is an energy expert best known for The Prize, a Pulitzer-winning look at the history of the oil industry.  Yergin gave George Mitchell high praise.

"It took a decade and a half of conviction, investment and dogged determination.  But before Mitchell was done, he launched what has proved to be the most important innovation in energy so far this century.  Thanks to George Mitchell, the United States was finally able to achieve energy independence from the Arabs." 

However, it was not easy.  It took 15 years to develop this technique.  Dan Steward, a geologist with Mitchell Energy, had this to say.

"There's no point in mincing words.  Many people thought Fracking was a stupid idea, even those in Mitchell's own company.  In the early years, probably 90% of the people in our firm didn't believe shale gas would be profitable.  It took forever to see results.  Mitchell's company did not cover the cost of fracking on shale tests until the 36th well was drilled.  So give credit to George Mitchell.  He was a tenacious visionary.  There are not a lot of men that would stay with something this risky as long as he did.  Because of Mitchell's persistence, we are today witnessing an unprecedented boom in domestic energy production."

Upon his passing in 2013, Forbes Magazine ranked George Mitchell the 239th richest American with a net worth of $2 billion. 

CYNTHIA WOODS MITCHELL

George made sure the entire Houston community knew about his wife Cynthia.  Even me, Mr. Clueless, knew about Cynthia.  That is because the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion is famous in Houston circles.   Located in The Woodlands, the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion is a well-known music venue north of Houston.  Many of the biggest names in the music industry have performed there.  For years, I had heard of various rock concerts and music festivals held at the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion.  However not once did I have any idea who Cynthia Woods Mitchell was.

George Mitchell was first and foremost a family man.  Mr. Mitchell enjoyed a loving relationship with his wife Cynthia that was one for the ages.  Married for 52 years, sadly Cynthia passed away in 2009.  She was 87 at the time. 

They had 10 children.  Pamela Maguire, Meredith Dreiss, Scott Mitchell, Sheridan Lorenz, Mark Mitchell, Kent Mitchell, Greg Mitchell, Kirk Mitchell, Todd Mitchell and Grant Mitchell. 

Mr. Mitchell had a sweet way of acknowledging his special wife... he liked to name places after her.  A good example of his interesting trait was the Pavilion.  In 1982, civic leaders and members of the Houston Symphony approached George Mitchell with the idea to establish a summer home for the symphony in The Woodlands.  The facility was envisioned as a place where performing arts groups and contemporary entertainers could play. 

Mitchell said he would be more than happy to help.  He donated the funds necessary to make this outdoor amphitheater a reality.  While he was at it, Mitchell made sure to immortalize his beloved wife by naming the arena after her.

The spacious arena seats 16,000 people.  It has become the second-most heavily used amphitheater in the world.

The Woodlands is an extremely affluent city built in the Seventies by George Mitchell.  Lying 30 miles north of Houston, as of 2020, its population was 110,000.  I always thought the Woodlands got its name from being built inside a dense forest.  Silly me.  The Woodlands was named for George's wife

One day Mr. Mitchell was wondering what to call his new city.  Why not name it after his wife Cynthia Woods?  Considering his town was nested inside a thick Texas pine forest, 'Woods-land' had a nice ring to it.  Woodlands was even better.  

Using a government loan, Mitchell went to work.  Immediately the critics surfaced.  They noted that the HUD New Town program had a 'low survival rate'.  They questioned whether the federally-funded Woodlands project would succeed.

If these critics knew George Mitchell, they would realize what a favor they had done for him.  Mitchell loved being told what he couldn't do.  His ambitious project included a conference center, hotels, office parks, retail malls, schools, large distribution centers, homes and beautiful golf courses. 

George Mitchell said he wanted his development to be so special that it would "entice city slickers who were looking for far-flung suburban quality of life." 

One way he could do this was to preserve as much of the surrounding forest as possible.  Mitchell was an early conservationist who became a persistent voice for environmentally-responsible economic growth.  Mitchell wished to demonstrate how civilization and nature could be intertwined harmoniously if humans were willing to use sufficient imagination. 

With these ideas in mind, he created The Woodlands by building homes and commercial areas to exist in harmony within the beautiful pine forest.  The master plan called for preserving trees, protecting the environment, minimizing flooding and creating ways to blend homes and forest together.

The Woodlands won a Special Award for Excellence in 1994 from the Urban Land Institute.  One can only wonder what those critics had to say now.  Indeed, Mitchell's understanding of how to integrate modern technology with environmental responsibility was light years ahead of its time.  People have called The Woodlands the 'City of the Future'.

The development was so beautiful that one corporate executive after another fell in love with the place.  However these bigwigs didn't like the long commute to downtown Houston.  So what did they do?  They moved their headquarters out to The Woodlands!!

George Mitchell was definitely ahead of his time.  The man had the ability to envision things like few other people.  But lots of people have good ideas.  Most quit at the first sign of negativity.  Not George Mitchell.  What set Mitchell apart was his ability to make it happen.  Mitchell possessed the dogged determination to get his vision accomplished despite all the obstacles and all the naysayers. 

Cynthia Woods had an interesting sense of humor.  Considering she was humble and and unpretentious, Cynthia laughed at how her husband's curious quirk had given her a pop culture status.  She loved to tease him about it.

"Gosh, George, let's call your next city 'The Cynthia'.  Or we could rename your annual Mardi Gras party and call it 'The Woodpeckers Ball'.  What about your Dickens on the Strand idea?  We could have the Parade of the Cynthia Wooden Soldiers!" 

Cynthia Woods did a lot more than help her husband George find convenient names.  She served as an inspiration to George Mitchell throughout their time together.  Cynthia Woods was born in 1922 in New York City.  She and her identical twin Pamela moved to southern Illinois at the age of eight.  Ms. Woods was an excellent student.  At the age of twelve, she distinguished herself by winning the county spelling bee.

The family fell upon hard times during the Great Depression.  In search of work, the teenage twins and their mother moved to Houston in 1938.  Both girls supported their mother as teenagers while simultaneously attending night school at the University of Houston. 

The story of how George and Cynthia met is special.  However, they had each had a different version.  Cynthia's version is cute, but tame.  Following the 1941 Thanksgiving football game between the University of Texas and Texas A&M, Cynthia was introduced to a young A&M cadet named George on the train ride back to Houston.  It seems George was a buddy of sister Pamela's boyfriend.  Cynthia was not happy with her blind date because he had been drinking heavily.  Not just that, Cynthia sensed there was something special about this George guy.  He seemed intelligent, something she liked.  In order to check George out, first she needed to free herself for a conversation.

First Cynthia whispered to Pamela.  Then Pamela persuaded her boyfriend to lure Cynthia's inebriated date elsewhere on the train for a while.  Sitting close by in another seat, George had been eyeing what was going on.  He had a hunch it had something to do with him.  Seeing the opening, George wasted no time occupying the vacant seat next to Cynthia.  Moving fast, George got Cynthia's phone number before her date could reappear.

George's version of the event is much better.  His humorous retelling is similar to an old joke.

   Q: What is the fastest way to get the attention of a pretty girl?

   A:  Hang the Congressional Medal of Honor around your neck. 

While serving in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers during World War II, George took time off to see the football game.  George was returning to Houston on the same train as Cynthia.  Everyone was in a bad mood because A&M had been undefeated until today.  Unfortunately the Texas Longhorns had come to College Station and soundly defeated the Aggies 23-0. 

In Mitchell's own words:

"So here I am on the train.  There are these two attractive girls, twin sisters, identical, both beautiful, both smart.  The one I liked best had a blind date with an A&M senior.  He wasn't paying any attention to her because he was still upset over the loss. 

Me?  I had forgotten about the game.  I was more worried how I was going to get this girl's phone number with this guy in my way.  Cynthia must have sensed my interest because she somehow persuaded her date to go to the back of the car to run an errand.  Aha, I smiled, this is my big chance.  To my consternation, the guy wouldn't leave.  Maybe he was smarter than I gave him credit for.  I guess my interest in Cynthia was written all over my face because the guy stared darts at me.  As he was checking me out, just then he noticed my open bag and saw something shiny.

I had won some sort of tennis medal.  I was captain of the A&M tennis team and all that stuff.  He recognized the A&M insignia, so he grabbed my medal and pulled it out.  The tennis medal was loosely attached to a gold watch.  When the watch fell on the floor, Cynthia noticed.  She asked if it had any significance.  I explained I had won the watch as the top engineering student of A&M. 

Once I said that, Cynthia's expression changed on the spot.  I will never forget her smile.  She slipped me her number and we started dating.  We were married a year later on Halloween Day.  Cynthia was a wonderful wife and a wonderful mother.  We had 10 children.  I loved her so much.  Everything I did, we did together... family, philanthropy, rebuilding Galveston.  She was the love of my life."

TEXAS A&m UNIVERSITY

George Mitchell loved Texas A&M with a passion.  He also loved astronomy.  Dreaming of becoming an astronomer, in high school he had built his own telescope to help satisfy his curiosity.  Mitchell loved to learn about outer space.  Assuming he would study astronomy in college, throughout high school he concentrated on math, physics and chemistry. 

However, one summer his brother Johnny arranged a summer job in the oil patch.  At this point Mitchell became enthralled with the hunt for petroleum.  Realizing the search for oil would be a more profitable profession that looking for life on other planets, Mitchell dedicated himself to petroleum engineering. 

One of George Mitchell's greatest traits was his loyalty.  He understood that the education he received at Texas A&M was what enabled him to become a success in his chosen field.  Consequently over the course of his life, George Mitchell donated $160 million dollars to the school.  In so doing, Mitchell became the greatest benefactor in the history of Texas A&M.  George Mitchell is a legend at his alma mater and deservedly so.

As he aged, Mitchell still wanted to explore the mysteries of the Universe.  He talked about it so much that his friends teased him about his love of outer space.  His friends called Mitchell 'The Star-struck Billionaire'.  Sadly, Mr. Mitchell's passion for astronomy set him up for his greatest disappointment.  George Mitchell did not have many letdowns in his life, but there were a few.  Mitchell's greatest disappointment was the failure of the Texas Super Collider Particle Accelerator. 

A particle accelerator is a device that uses electromagnetic fields to propel charged particles to high speeds and contains them in well-defined beams.  The idea is to unlock the secrets of the atom.  When completed, the Supercollider would have allowed the U.S. to retain dominance in high-energy physics.

Mitchell was instrumental in getting the Superconducting Super Collider project approved by President Ronald Reagan in the 1980s.  Sadly, it was killed off in the 1990s due to serious cost overruns, leaving the project half finished.  Had the Supercollider been completed, it would have boosted energy 20 times larger than any accelerator ever constructed.  Mitchell was devastated at his loss.  This had been his baby.  It took him a long time to get over this setback. 

As a visionary, one can assume that Mitchell understood the practical long-term benefits of this project far better than the average man.  But there was nothing he could do about it other than accept defeat... something he wasn't used to doing.

Picking up the pieces as best he could, Mitchell quietly saved the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer being built at Texas A&M and funded research to create stronger magnets to help in cancer research.  The list just goes on and on.  Watching Mitchell mope around, one day a friend said, "If you love astronomy so much, why not build something over at A&M?" 

What a great idea!  Since Mitchell was dying to renew his love of all things interstellar, why not build an Astrophysics center indeed!  Boys and their toys, right?

First Mitchell helped fund the Giant Magellan Telescope high in the Andes Mountains of Chile.  Then for good measure, in 2002, Mitchell endowed the Mitchell Institute for Fundamental Physics and Astronomy, an astrophysics lab designed to research the complex issues of the universe.

Mitchell needed someone to get his institute off to a rousing start, a celebrity of some sort.  Mitchell knew just the guy: Stephen Hawking, the world’s most famous scientist. 

George Mitchell had originally met the physicist during his pursuit of the Supercollider project.  Hawking was impressed at the depth of Mitchell's interest and knowledge in his work.  Mitchell was equally impressed with the professor's profound insight into the mysteries of life.  The two men formed a deep friendship. 

Mitchell brought Hawking to lecture at A&M on four different occasions.  During Hawking's stay, the world-renowned physicist would delight in traveling across campus in his wheelchair.  He loved to interact with hero-worshipping students who greeted him with a Texas-sized "Howdy, how ya doin', Dr. Hawking!" 

George Mitchell had to grin.  Nothing like a warm Aggie welcome for the world's most famous scientist! 

"Stephen loved to go out across campus in his motorized wheelchair and surprise people.  He would scoot from the Student Center across to the Physics building.  Many an Aggie student stopped in their tracks upon seeing Stephen Hawking roll across campus with a big smile on his face.  "Is that who I think it is??"  Stephen enjoyed their enthusiasm and liked having them say hello to him.  This chance to connect to the awestruck students was very special for him."

In addition to their intellectual brilliance, both men had a sense of humor.  Late in his life, George Mitchell was no longer able to walk.  Mitchell, like Hawking, was confined to a wheel chair.  Did Mitchell, once the fastest tennis player on his team, mope about his problem?  No, of course not.  Competitive as always, Mitchell challenged Hawking to a wheelchair race.  Next thing you know, the two friends were racing each other down the A&M corridor.

So now you have met George Mitchell.  Father.  Astronomer.  Oil man.  The guy who freed America from Arab oil dominance.  Created an amazing city.  Became the greatest philanthropist in Texas A&M history.  What does a guy like that do for an encore?