Dr. Eugene N. Mitchell, a general surgeon and newspaper publisher with movie-star good looks and the charm to match, died Friday, June 22, 2012 at Grand Manor Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in St. Louis. He was 78.
He had suffered a stroke several months ago said his wife, Betty Mitchell. Private services were held Tuesday.
At one point, Dr. Mitchell led two of the most powerful institutions in St. Louis, Homer G. Phillips Hospital and the St. Louis Argus. “Gene was a very talented and gifted surgeon, and the Argus was once the dominant African-American newspaper,” said his longtime friend Donald M. Suggs, an oral surgeon and publisher and executive editor of The St. Louis American. The two met when both were young doctors at Homer G.
“He was a very important figure in the entire community, but the black community in particular, for a number of years,” Suggs said.
While still practicing medicine, Dr. Mitchell took the helm of the venerable newspaper his grandfather co-founded in 1912 and led it during the civil rights era.
“Under Gene, the Argus achieved greatness; it was the best African-American newspaper in the U.S.,” said Gene Liss, publisher of the Limelight magazine and newspaper and former owner of the Argus’ sales arm in the 1960s and 1970s.
During the ‘70s, Liss said, ad revenues sometimes hit $100,000 for just one issue.
Dr. Mitchell “was unique and decades ahead of his time in influence and power,” Liss said.
Famous firsts
Dr. Mitchell was one of the first African Americans to become a member of the Mysterious Order of the Veiled Prophet. The secret society had been founded as an all-white, philanthropic organization in 1878, and its membership was reserved for the elite.
In 1979, 101 years later, Dr. Mitchell and two other African-American physicians – Dr. William C. Banton II and Dr. Jerome Williams – became Veiled Prophet members.
A year earlier, Dr. Mitchell had been the first black elected to the board of directors of Mercantile Trust Company N.A., an achievement worthy of mention in the April 13, 1978, issue of Jet Magazine.
Another “first” which polished Dr. Mitchell’s image came in 1967, when he traveled to Chicago to purchase the first car from the first African-American General Motors Oldsmobile dealership. The franchise was owned by Albert W. Johnson and this, too, was heralded in Jet.
He was the first African American to be admitted to the University of Missouri-Columbia Medical School, where he graduated with honors.
He was from a family of leaders and trendsetters. When his father, Frank Mitchell, who had once managed the heavyweight champion Sonny Liston, died in 1970, his obituary was picked up by the Associated Press and ran in the New York Times.
His grandfather and great-uncle, brothers William and Joseph Everett (J.E.) Mitchell, founded the Argus. Dr. Mitchell’s grandmother, Nannie Mitchell, would step in when her husband William died in 1945. She became the driving force behind her son, Frank Mitchell, who became publisher of the Argus, and later, Dr. Mitchell, the son of Frank and Zelma Mitchell Harris (who remarried after her husband’s death).
The Argus earned the coveted Russwurm Award, named for John B. Russwurm, one of the founders of the first black newspaper, Freedom’s Journal, which launched in 1827.
Dr. Mitchell continued the tradition of advocating for greater educational opportunities, political participation and full civil rights for blacks.
During that time, the battle raged to save Homer G. Phillips, one of the country’s most prestigious African-American medical institutions and Dr. Mitchell had a very personal interest. He had served as the hospital’s medical director in the late ‘60s and early ‘70s.
The Argus was the only newspaper to come out against Mayor James Conway, during whose tenure the hospital was closed. The Argus endorsed Vince Schoemehl over Conway. Schoemehl won, but he did not keep his campaign promise to reopen the hospital.
‘Shakespearean proportions’
Eugene Nathaniel Mitchell was born in St. Louis on Sept. 6, 1934. He graduated from Sumner High School in 1951 and earned a bachelor’s degree in chemistry from Saint. Louis University. He earned his medical degree at the University of Missouri-Columbia Medical School in 1960. He interned at the Medical College of Wisconsin and did his residency at Homer G. Phillips Hospital before going into private practice while simultaneously running the Argus.
His life, however, devolved into what Liss called “a story of Shakespearean proportions.” It would eventually lead him to sell the Argus in 2003.
In the mid-70s, Liss maintains, Dr. Mitchell was “targeted by negative forces that dragged him away from the higher ends of the community.” Those “forces” were the rising drug culture, to which many people say Dr. Mitchell succumbed.
But only for a time. Dr. Mitchell eventually became a convert to Islam. In keeping with the faith, his wife sought serenity as she prepared for his burial.
But, she said simply, “It’s still so hard.”
A traditional Muslim graveside service was held at Lake Charles Park Cemetery Tuesday.
Dr. Mitchell was preceded in death by his parents, and his five brothers and sisters.
In addition to his wife of 50 years, Dr. Mitchell is survived by Eugene N. “Butch” Mitchell Jr., St. Louis, and a daughter, Toni Marie Hayes, St. Louis, six grandchildren and one great-grandchild.
Edited and reprinted with permission from www.stlbeacon.org.
