Mitchell was a quiet, frugal but generous man, who was dedicated to wife and family, his three brothers, Bill, Jay and Ed, and friends and associates; and to aspiring engineers, and to the Irish Culture and Performing Arts. Mitchell avoided accolades; always giving credit for his accomplishments to associates. He received numerous business, academic and civic awards and was sought by many such organizations to join their boards. Mitchell’s awards lie in several piles in corners of his private study.
Mitchell, like all great achievers had numerous talents from athleticism to Irish singing, penny whistling and storytelling; to super intellectual curiosity, creativity and world class genius; and also to high energy corporate executive leadership - "getting the job done with zero defects" or “doing it the engineering way with Mitchell testing” as Mitchell would always say; and upon which Motorola built its Six-Sigma culture, leading to the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award from the US Congress in 1988.