Obituary of Glen Henry Mitchel, Jr.

Glen Henry Mitchel, Jr. died peacefully in Santa Barbara on April 17, 2024, six days shy of his 98th birthday. Right up until the end, he was alert, happy, and in loving contact with his extensive family including his four children, who were present when he died, and his thirteen grandchildren.

Glen Henry was born in Los Angeles at the house of his parents, Glen Henry Mitchel and Charlotte Clayton Mitchel, on April 23, 1926. He attended Third Street Elementary School, John Burrough’s Jr. High School, and Los Angeles High School. After serving as an Army officer in Italy in WWII, he studied Engineering at the California Institute of Technology where he earned his degree. His Electrical Engineering license was active throughout his life.

Glen Henry is predeceased by his wife of 23 years, Cynthia Clark Mitchel (divorced), by Martha Chapple Porter Mitchel to whom he was married for 20 years, and by his sister, Louise Mitchel Marlow, of Lexington, Kentucky.

He is survived by his brother, George Clayton Mitchel of Los Angeles. He is also survived by all four of his and Cynthia’s children: Glen Henry (Hank) Mitchel, (Mari), Clark Fleming Mitchel (Carol), Caroline Mitchel Chesebro (Mark), and Cynthia (Mia) Mitchel Ludlow, (Jeff). Glen Henry is also survived by his thirteen grandchildren and four great grandchildren, as well as by Martha Porter’s children, Gregory (Jane), Claire, and Clark (Katie), and their eleven children.

After graduating from Caltech in 1947, Glen Henry worked as an engineer for two large, industrial corporations before starting his own electrical contracting business in Los Angeles. This firm grew to be one of the largest businesses of its type in California, fulfilling large municipal and corporate contracts throughout the state. He sold this business when he purchased a small company importing industrial mechanical power transmission products, a business which grew under his leadership and eventually sold to Hitachi Metals International. He later purchased a manufacturer of electrical distribution equipment which sold to Berkshire Hathaway in 1993. Glen Henry was an astute engineer admired for his managerial, technical, and financial leadership.

Glen Henry Mitchel, Jr. Glen Henry sat on the board of several publicly held manufacturing companies. He was also known for his philanthropic work throughout Los Angeles and Santa Barbara. He served as Chairman of the Board of Harvard School (now Harvard-Westlake), the Cathedral Corporation of the Diocese of Los Angeles with Bishop Robert Rusack, and as Vice Chairman of The Hospital of the Good Samaritan. In Santa Barbara, he served as a trustee of the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History; and, in his 90s, Glen Henry, along with his good friend and philanthropist Charles Munger, paid for and oversaw the building of the Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics at the University of California at Santa Barbara, a project of which he was, deservedly, very proud.

Glen Henry was a long-time member of the “Rancheros Visatadores,” an association he treasured for close to 60 years. He traveled widely with friends to join in hunting and fishing expeditions. With friends in the 1950s, he founded and built the Eureka Duck Club in Kern Co. He was a long-time member of Coffee Pot Lodge on the Henry’s Fork in Idaho. He was an avid boater, journeying regularly from Newport Beach, Los Angeles Harbor, or Marina Del Rey throughout the Channel Islands. He was a member of the Los Angeles Yacht Club, the Los Angeles Country Club, and the California Club. In Santa Barbara he was a long-time member of the Valley Club, which he often called his “second home.” Everywhere he went he shared the love, friendship, and admiration of many individuals, both professionally and personally, most of whom he outlived. His Number One priority throughout life was his family, all his Mitchel and Porter children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren, of whom he was always deeply proud and whom he loved without reservation. He enjoyed a full life, filled with happiness, for which he was grateful right up to the very end.

A Memorial Service will be held on Wednesday, May 1 at All Saints by-the-Sea Episcopal Church on Eucalyptus Lane in Montecito at 10:30 a.m. Interment will be at a private, family service at Forest Lawn in Glendale.

In lieu of flowers, donations in Glen Henry’s honor may be offered to the Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics at UCSB, or to the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History