When it comes to [hospital] supervision, the question very often arises. “Who shall supervise the supervisors?”
Dr. Mitchell was born in Plymouth, New Hampshire, attended several Vermont academies, and graduated from the University of Vermont in 1896. He was an assistant physician at the Bridgewater (MA) State Hospital for Insane Criminals, then at Danvers Mass. State Hospital (1899–1907), served at the Bangor (ME) State Hospital (1907–10), then returned to Danvers as superintendent (1910–12), and, in 1912, was appointed superintendent of the Warren State Hospital in Pennsylvania.
He was a member of the American Neurological Association (1912), Trustee of the Pennsylvania Medical Society, President of the Essex County Medical Society, American Psychopathological Association, Association for Research in Nervous and Mental Diseases, and American Institute of Criminal Law and Criminology. He published 13 papers on psychiatric subjects.
Dr. Mitchell served as Secretary-Treasurer (1918–22) and President of the American Psychiatric Association (1922–23).