George Mitchell, B.D.

Class of 
1956

Some seventeen months ago, my wife Genia and I welcomed a sixth grandchild, whom we have seen crawl, walk, run, dance, and now climb! Like each of the grands, he is a true delight. For the past year I have been reading as my devotional An Eclectic Almanac for the Faithful: People, Places, and Events that Shape Us  (440 pages bound in Perfect Paperback, issued 2006), by our YDS colleague, W. Paul Jones. This is my second time through these meditations with Paul. Day by day he recounts the contributions of thousands of women and men, youth, grownups, the dying, sinners and saints, the foolish and the wise, Protestants and Catholics – among them monks, leaders, authors, composers,  and potentates – who have made individually and socially to church, churches, societies, nations, and the world as they grow toward holiness, and the knowledge of God, and whose lives are given willingly and, not rarely, taken. Then addressing what he has written about his chosen faithful ones whose lives are deeply associated with particular dates, he notes his thoughtful requests to God for understanding and courage. I knew Paul as we resided in Beecher House for two years when Paul was a couple years ahead of me. I rarely passed his door and didn’t hear recorded classical music playing. There are brief biographies of his remarkable life at https://divinity.yale.edu/alumni/class-notes/w-paul-jones-bd-ma-phd and at http://books.upperroom.org/book-author/w-paul-jones/ .