Dr. Charles Z. K. Mitis

Our father had an amazing life. He was born in a house in Skalice, Czechoslovakia, on April 3, 1915, while World War I was being fought and the Austro-Hungarian Empire was in existence and still had a king as a ruler. He lived in three or four towns and cities in Czechoslovakia and Poland and attended the University of Krakow where he received his M.D. degree shortly before World War II began on September 1, 1939.

Dad then had to escape from his homeland to the south through Hungary, eventually making his way to France like many others fleeing German oppression. By November 1939, he was training in the Polish army preparing for the struggle against Hitler’s army. I remember that he told us that his time in France was pretty calm. Before long, he was in London and a member of the Polish Resettlement Corps, which, for him at least, was being in the navy. He was, of course, the ship’s doctor. The British destroyer he was on sailed throughout the Mediterranean Sea during his service. He mentioned that they stopped at many renowned cities, including Cairo.

Dad was on a ship in the English Channel on D-Day. He said no one was told that this was the invasion, but with one look at the surrounding armada everyone knew that this was it. He completed his military service on November 6, 1948. He didn’t explain, but during this period he worked in hospitals in London and Edinborough. While in Edinborough, one of the patients that came under his care in that hospital was his brother, our uncle, with a broken leg. Our uncle was serving as a paratrooper during the invasion.

Dad lived in London as a bachelor for a few years, becoming good friends with several other doctors. He decided to specialize in psychiatry. The best place to go at that time was in India. His brother (previously mentioned) and wife were living in India and dissuaded him from going there. So, the next best place for psychiatry specialization was in Galveston, TX, at the UT Medical branch. He met our mother his first day there and later on became friends with a psychiatric doctor named Ed Grice.

Ed moved to Odessa and asked Dad to move here, and so he did. They shared an office together for several years, later working in private practice here in Odessa and serving as a psychiatrist until the age of seventy-five.

What was most important to him though, were his family and friends. He cared for our mother until her passing in 1995, doting on her like a mother hen with one chick. It may not fit with the picture described here, but he wasn’t pretentious. He loved his golf and tennis pals and enjoyed being one of the boys. He was a good athlete, participating in the above as well as snow skiing, ping pong, and hunting.

Dad was a very kind and loving man. He will be greatly missed.

Survivors include his sons, Steven Mitis and wife, Amy of Odessa; and Charles Anthony “Tony” Mitis and wife, Barbara of Kilgore, TX; a sister, Olga, of Europe; and four grandchildren, Jennifer, Jill, Stephanie, and Emily Mitis.

Private graveside services will be held at Sunset Memorial Gardens with a memorial service to follow at 2:30 p.m. on Wednesday, August 31, 2011, at Westminster Presbyterian Church with Jim Gill officiating.

In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the Westminster Presbyterian Church or to the charity of one’s choice.

Services entrusted to Hubbard-Kelly Funeral Home of Odessa.