About Senator George J. Mitchell
Senator George J. Mitchell was born and raised in Waterville, Maine and graduated from Waterville High School, Bowdoin College, and Georgetown University Law Center. He served as United States Attorney for Maine, and as United States District Court Judge for Maine.In 1980, he was appointed to the United States Senate from Maine in 1980 to complete the un-expired term of Senator Edmund S. Muskie, who resigned to become Secretary of State. He was elected to a full term in the Senate in 1982, and reelected in 1988. He left the Senate in 1995 as the Senate Majority Leader, a position he had held since January 1989.
Senator Mitchell served as chairman of the Peace Negotiations in Northern Ireland. Under his leadership, the governments of Ireland and the United Kingdom and the political parties of Northern Ireland agreed to the historic Good Friday peace accord. At the request of President Clinton, Prime Minister Barak, and Chairman Arafat, Senator Mitchell served as chairman of an International Fact Finding Committee on violence in the Middle East. The committee's recommendation, widely known as The Mitchell Report, was endorsed by the Bush administration, the European Union, and by many other governments.
Senator Mitchell serves as the chancellor of The Queen's University of Belfast and as president of The Economic Club of Washington. He served as chairman of the International Crisis Group, a non-profit organization dedicated to the prevention of crises in international affairs , as chairman of the Special Commission investigating allegations of impropriety in the bidding process for the Olympic Games, and as chairman of the National Health Care Commission. He established the Mitchell Scholarship Program (now the Mitchell Institute) in 1995, with a goal of increasing educational opportunity for Maine students. For more information on Senator Mitchell, you can visit the archives which hold the Mitchell Papers at Bowdoin College: http://library.bowdoin.edu/arch.
Visit the Academy of Achievement for exclusive interviews and photos of George Mitchell.