Joel Mitchell: fisherman, woodworker and professor

Fort Worth, TX

4/7/2008

When students hear that his father delivered him in a cabin in Alaska without electricity, most are skeptical to believe Dr. Joel Mitchell. After all, it doesn’t seem typical for a professor of kinesiology at TCU to come from such a background.

The Homestead Years

“Apparently there was an Eskimo mid-wife who delivered my siblings, but since I was the fourth child, my father had evidently learned how to deliver a child from previous experience,” said Mitchell.

Joel was born into a family of commercial fisherman, and for a while Mitchell was as well. They fished for halibut, herring, crab and, most importantly, salmon off the coast of Alaska. And if the summer season was good to his family, they moved to Hawaii for the cold winter months.

“The Homestead Years” are the years in which Mitchell refers his childhood of growing up in Alaska. Students taking his classes can often expect to hear stories from “The Homestead Years” that always seem to parallel the lecture.

From these years, he learned to work with his hands, which he still continues today by making furniture and refurbishing old trucks and boats.

Two Hands and One Mind

His interest in making furniture actually stemmed from his father-in-law, a woodworker. Although his father frequently made furniture, it was often for necessity instead of for pleasure. Mitchell enjoys working with his hands as a way to relax.

As a fisherman, Mitchell had to be good with his hands and mind. “Fishing is a dangerous job, and when something goes wrong you need to be the one to fix it, or something can go wrong,” he said.

Until 2000, Mitchell still owned a small fishing boat in Alaska. Every summer he returned there for the summer salmon season, which lasted for six weeks.

“It was so different from what I’m used to,” Mitchell said, “It’s physical and risky, but you also need to have good sense about you. Fishing is good if you have a need for thrill, because it can get down to basic survival instincts. Although it’s incredibly stressful, it is rewarding at the same time.”

In 2000, he sold his boat to his niece and her husband, a commercial fisherman. Hands-on can also describe Mitchell’s research. Graduate students are an essential part in his research dealing in sodium balance issues affecting athletes.

They gain practical experience in the labs corresponding to Mitchell’s research, and although few undergraduates gain access to these labs, some seniors working on their senior projects also can gain hands-on experience with him.

Mitchell believes research is incremental. Normally not one project will result in something that drastically changes the field, he said, but with each small change there come bigger strides.

In his research on sodium balance, Mitchell points out that this can not only help athletes, but people who work in field that demand physical activity in the heat such as construction workers, firefighters and soldiers.

Playing a part

Just as the research contributes to a larger picture, Mitchell contributes his time and efforts to organizations that can make a bigger difference.

Mitchell is part of the Texas Chapter of the American College of Sports Medicine (TXACSM). He served on the Board of Directors for 11 years total and as the Executive Director for the past six years.

After “passing the torch” recently, the Board decided to rename the service award in his honor for the work he put forth into the regional organization. TXACSM is a regional chapter of a national organization. It holds a national meeting, sponsors lectureships, and grants funding for graduate research, but its main focus is to support student involvement.

During his tenure, Mitchell made it a priority to increase funding for student involvement. Currently, the regional organization is ahead of all other regions.

As a professor at TCU for the past 20 years, Mitchell has seen the department grow tremendously. The former Physical Education department has been changed to Kinesiology and with that change, the stigma of PE has been slowly melting away.

PE has often been the first program to be cut in schools, especially with the growing focus in standardized testing, Mitchell said, but TCU’s program offers a solid movement science foundation for PE majors and a strengthened PE program to combat the failing program in schools around the country.

As a fisherman, woodworker, researcher and volunteer, Joel Mitchell brings a colorful lecture to his kinesiology students.