George P. Mitchell: Houstonian of the century

In a December 2011 Chronicle editorial, we allowed that George Mitchell "long ago made our short list of candidates for Houstonian of the Century - the 21st century."

He most certainly did. But those words of praise require an update. On Mitchell's death at 94 last week, we choose to elevate the oilman, philanthropist, futurist and visionary to the very top of that 21st-century list.

And for good measure, let's acknowledge George Mitchell's unchallenged position astride the list of noteworthy 20th-century Houstonians, alongside the likes of Jesse Jones, Gus Wortham, George R. Brown, R. Bob Smith, Barbara Jordan, Mickey Leland and a host of others.

George Phydias Mitchell was one of a kind. Galveston, Houston, the state of Texas, his country and the world were blessed by Mitchell's extraordinary and extraordinarily diverse talents.

A recitation of Mitchell's many achievements only begins to capture the man's essence:

Mitchell's creation of The Woodlands in 1974, as a community with strict federal requirements to offer housing to low-income residents, redefined the American suburb.

The genius of The Woodlands concept is apparent on at least two levels. With the addition of wooded trails, pocket parks and preservation of the "Livable Forest" throughout, Mitchell offered a multimillion-dollar neighborhood infrastructure to buyers of the lowest-priced homes as well as those geared to higher-income buyers.

The project also made obsolete the concept of a "bedroom community" by mandating creation of a paying job for every household. This idea has flowered into a community that is rapidly becoming a satellite downtown and enormous economic generator as well as a beautiful residential neighborhood.

Finally, on more than one occasion The Woodlands offered an acceptable alternative to "hard on the eyes" Houston for corporate decision-makers charged with moving their companies to Houston or another location. We'll never know precisely how many were persuaded to come here, at least in part, by the attractions of The Woodlands.

The people of Galveston benefited by their native son's generous acts of philanthropy across the decades. Mitchell's efforts restored the Island from down-at-the-heels poverty to the beginnings of genuine seaside glamour. The work is not done, but thanks to George Mitchell, it is being taken to the next level by the likes of entrepreneur and fellow-BOI Tilman Fertitta, among others. We hope it continues.

And did we mention applying fracturing techniques to tight shale formations, which has brought an abundance of clean-burning natural gas to Texas and is reshaping the energy world?

It was Mitchell's dogged determination alone that brought the world fracking of hard-to-crack shale and the energy revolution it has spawned.

For decades, Mitchell argued back against skeptics, including many on his own Mitchell Energy board of directors. In the end, Mitchell's persistence prevailed and the entire world stands to reap the benefits.

Who doesn't have a vivid memory of George Mitchell, the poor boy who made his own American dream come true? As the Chronicle's Nancy Sarnoff mentioned in her online news obituary last Friday, Mitchell was a familiar figure in the downtown tunnel, no fancy entourage in tow, with a newspaper tucked under his arm for lunchtime reading at a deli.

Our favorite memory comes from Mitchell's much-awaited appearances at the annual Mardi Gras Balls in his native Galveston.

Over the years, these had become elegant, black tie affairs for the men, but always enlivened by traditional holiday face-painting. George Mitchell faithfully participated in this ritual, as he did in all phases of life, and his painted Mardi Gras masks routinely enjoyed wide and approving viewership in pictures contained in the Chronicle's Lifestyle section coverage. We modestly suggest a public gallery of these to show that Mitchell also had a lighter side.

Mitchell's life was filled with monumental accomplishments. Any one of the three endeavors mentioned above would have assured this Galveston boy, the son of Greek immigrants, a global legacy.

But any life of 94 years has its share of disappointments, and Mitchell's was no exception. If we had to choose a public one, it would be the failure to fund and complete a typically ambitious project known as the Texas superconducting supercollider.

Through his Houston Area Research Center, or HARC, (later renamed the Houston Advanced Research Center), Mitchell in the mid-1980s secured a federal Department of Energy grant to study the creation of a superconducting super collider, or SSC.

The intention of the collider was to detect the elusive Higgs boson, a particle that is thought to exist in all matter and which gives particles their mass and provides clues to other mysteries of the universe.Ultimately, the idea was deemed too expensive to build. President Bill Clinton reluctantly scrapped the collider in 1994, calling its cancellation a "serious loss" for science.

The distinction of finding the so-called "God particle," as Higgs boson is known, eventually went to the Large Hadron Collider in Europe.

Resurrecting the Texas collider project would be a monument worthy of Mitchell's memory.

Failing that unlikely turn of events, we are content to offer our gratitude for Mitchell's keen mind and humble manner. We learned from both.

As befits a man of the people whose life's work centered on building livable communities, Mitchell's memorial services will be open to the public. Two will be in Galveston: at Trinity Episcopal Church at 5:30 p.m. Aug. 6, followed by a celebration at 7 p.m. at Saengerfest Park, 2302 Strand. A third will be at 7:30 p.m., Aug. 8 at the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion in The Woodlands.

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