Nicholas Reid Mitchell

Nicholas (Nick) Reid Mitchell was born in an EMT vehicle on the way to the Hospital in Huntington, West Virginia on June 14, 1979, to start an interesting life that was spent exceeding expectations. His life was cut way too short, having died unexpectedly in his residence in Washington DC on August 16, 2024 just 2 months after his 45th birthday.

He is survived by his mother and father Christine and David Mitchell, brother Daniel Mitchell, sister in Law Katherine Mitchell, nieces Grace and Nora and his sister Jillian. Nick was able to celebrate with His Grandma and Grandpa their 75th anniversary along with His Aunt Angelia (Keleher) Barbarino and husband Don Barbarino, Uncle Brad Keleher and Aunt Theresa. Nick is also survived by Uncles James, Steven and William Mitchell as well as numerous cousins and their children.

A Celebration of Life ceremony and party will be held at Nick's favorite place in the world-his parents “Beach House” in Galveston, TX on June 14 this summer. Y'all are invited-come on down. In lieu of flowers, gifts may be made to the Juvenile Diabetes Foundation at jdrf.org.

Nick's early years were spent in southeast and central Ohio. It was during his 13th month that Nick was diagnosed with Juvenile Diabetes. Doctors at the time told his parents not to expect Nick to see his teen years. Nick was a fighter and he proved them wrong.

In 1985 the family moved to Deerfield, Illinois his father and uncle's Hometown. For a couple years, Nick was one of seven Mitchell children all attending Walden school at the same time. This was the period when Nick first began to exhibit the creativity associated with a right brained person and he was clearly right brained. He participated in children's theater for several years, science fairs and so on. Quite typical of any young kid he participated in scouting, little league baseball, piano and clarinet lessons, family camping trips, vacations in Hawaii, Mexico and the obligatory trip to Disney World.

He was very creative with self initiated artwork projects around the home. It was also during this time that he took up competitive swimming and diving at a local club.

Nick's high school years were spent at Deerfield High School where he continued with singing in the Madrigals, Boys Choir as well as Swimming and diving for all 4 years. The Madrigals were invited to perform at Disney World one Spring Break. He continued to grow creatively on his own because school curriculum at the time didn't allow for more than one artistic endeavor at a time.

Funny story about that. Call it Nick's discovery as an artist. He had to prepare a poster for an upcoming swim meet that got displayed in the hallway at DHS. It was spotted one day by the head of the art department. He was so taken by the poster that he called his mother and asked why her kid wasn't in any of his art classes. Nick graduated from DHS in 1997.

With the help and mentoring by the art teacher, he got accepted into the School of Fine Arts at the University of Kansas without a portfolio. Very unusual. At the two year mark all students in the KU School of Fine Arts are required to present a portfolio to be judged by faculty. If you pass all well and good. If not you are given three choices. You can either change majors, drop out of school, or repeat a semester and present a new portfolio and hope for the best. Nick refused to give up on his dream and opted to repeat the semester. Next time around, his portfolio was accepted. By the time he graduated with a degree in Fine Arts in the summer of 2001, he was actively tutoring other students. Tutoring and mentoring others was a part of his DNA and continued throughout his professional career.

Nick's professional career included stints in the heartland and on both coasts. First job was as a contract graphic designer for a Chicago firm in downtown Chicago. A life long friend of Nick's was Stacy from the swimming and Diving days. Her family are owners of the Cubby Bear, Vines and several of the iconic rooftops behind right and left field in Wrigleyville. They needed some graphic design and website work for their business. They took Nick under their wing and treated him as a family member. One day Stacy's dad, George, took Nick aside and said we let our roof top manager go, and we want you to run them for the remainder this season. Not really what he trained for, but one doesn't say no to George so he went for it. As far as we know, Nick's website and logo work are still in use by the Cubby Bear and related businesses.

Nick returned to Kansas City when a position opened up at Ft. Leavenworth. It was a chance to reunite with his friends and classmates at KU. He continued to have relationships with a number of them throughout his life. It was also an opportunity to use his design skills full time. Nick applied and was accepted for the position. Problem was that he needed a security clearance to do the work. So began the occasional visits his parents and hometown neighbors received from people in blue suits, white shirts, red ties and sunglasses inquiring about Nick's past. His parents got calls from time to time wanting to know what was going on.

This went on through Nick' career as the security requirements increased. Eventually, he held the second highest federal government security clearance available which included two lie detector tests. Basically, Nick couldn't tell anybody what he did for a living.

Another funny story. Nick attended his 20th high school reunion-you know the one where everybody brags about their success. He had to kind of tip toe around what he was doing. When he came home after, he told his parents that after a while even he began to disbelieve his stories.

Somewhere along the way Nick decided he wanted to be a California guy so he applied for a position with Northrup-Grumman in Palmdale, California the home of Edwards Air Force Base. Edwards AFB is the place where all kind of of top secret stuff goes on. The level of security clearance required is much higher than that required for Ft Leavenworth. One cannot even step on the base without it, At any rate he was given the standard relocation allowance to move to California and find a residence and be ready to go when the clearance was finally granted. The clearance took longer than expected and the relocation allowance ran out. Nick became homeless for a short period. Fortunately, his brother Dan and Family were stationed in Monterey California where Dan, a career army officer was attending the Naval Post Graduate School. Nick was invited to move in with them until the clearance was approved.

Finally, Nick was able to report for work. His parents remember how excited he was on his first day when he called them. He said that they took him all over the facility, into the hangers through Labs and out on the flight line and then he said but “I can't tell you what I saw”.

Nick really loved his time in California. He had a ton of friends that traveled around the state and enjoyed the California experience. He loved his work experience , but over time it became less challenging. When his Great Aunt Ferne passed, he inherited enough to take a leave of absence from Northrup Grumman to attend Coding school. The Santa Monica Coding school was a very intense 3 month course that really elevated Nick's resume. The ability to code along with the high level security clearance are marketable assets.

Although Nick had a number of close friends on the Left Coast, he was tired of the craziness that is the California lifestyle. As he looked around, he became aware that there was a demand for skills that he possessed in Washington, DC. In addition he would be much closer to family – Dan in North Carolina, Jillian in South Carolina, cousin Katy in DC and Aunt Angela. He reached out to Booz Allen Hamilton, a giant consulting firm that performed a huge amount of contract work with the Federal Government. Over time he was able to parlay his experience to positions of ever increasing responsibility and increased his security level to top secret. His job title would have been Senior Designer for Federal Government Contracts. Some of the clients that we are aware of are the FBI, NSA, State Department and Department of Homeland Security. We have no idea nor will ever know the nature of the work he did for them.

Nick's first residence was a rental unit in McLean, Va. A suburb of DC. He longed to own his own residence and was able with the help of friends to find a Condominium for sale at 1314 Massachusetts Ave. It was four blocks from the White House and near all the institutions and landmarks that make DC a great city. As modifications were made and decor completed, he made the condo his home. He was so very proud of it and any body who ever visited would understand why. He was elected and served the Home Owner's Association, a position he found both trying and rewarding.

He had a wide circle of friends that met often to socialize. Travel included a trip to Montreal, to the Bahamas to swim with the pigs, and most recently to Puerto Rico. For fun, Nick got involved in Bocce Ball. Nick got elected to the League's board of commissioners and more or less ended up running things. The league had about 900 players who would meet once a week at a park in DC during the season and weather permitting to play their games. Afterward the teams overwhelmed local bars in the neighborhood for libations.

Somewhere along the line he received a call from his Aunt Katy. She called to let him know that her granddaughter, Ashley, had recently moved from the family home in Illinois to go to work in D C. Nick was asked to reach out to Ashley to help her navigate her way around town. Nick and Ashley became great friends and did all kinds of stuff a favorite being Sunday Brunch. Both were great movie fans and for a long period (probably til COVID hit) went to a movie every Sunday. Nick was one of those people who could see a movie once, know all about the plot, recite dialogue and tell you about the cast. He would have been a great movie critic.

Nick's Mom and Dad will be eternally grateful to Ashley for her friendship with Nicholas. It was she who was called to his residence on August 16, 2024 to make a wellness check on her friend and cousin.

All those whose Nick's life touched will remember him as a great guy and like his family miss him terribly. So if you will please every now and then raise a glass to Nick and tell a story on him.