Former Boston University Trustee Joseph Mitchell Jr., Massachusetts’ second-ever African American Superior Court judge, died Jan. 14 at his home in Sarasota, Fla. He was 78.
A statement released by President emeritus John Silber said Mitchell was a valued member of the BU community.
“Judge Mitchell served long and ably as chairman of the Committee on Academic Affairs and offered wise counsel and useful suggestions in matters pertaining to the recruitment and retention of both minority faculty and students,” the statement said. “He was a good and faithful friend of the university and a close personal friend of [former Board of Trustees Trustees Chairman and BU professor] Arthur Metcalf and me.”
Mitchell graduated from the School of Law in 1952 and served as a trustee from 1969 until 1995, according to the BU Bridge. In 1966, he was appointed as a Massachusetts Superior Court judge.
Retired Superior Court Judge Harry Elam, who said he followed Mitchell’s career as a judge closely, spoke highly of the former trustee’s 26 years on the bench, noting his diligent work with unpopular cases.
“He would take on any case or any challenge. He was a workaholic,” Elam said. “I never felt he received the recognition he deserved for the work he put in. He was an honorable person and a fine judge.”
BU Trustee Esther Hopkins said he greatly helped the university when it entered the Silber-era.
“He was one of the ones who had been there and sort of held the whole place together when John Silber came and there was all the hubbub and commotion going on,” she said.
Hopkins said his uncommon views as a judge and the criticism he often received for them made him unique.
“People in the legal field often had a problem with his position, which was that people needed to have another chance – that you had to see the human side of a person,” she said.
Mitchell leaves his wife, Doris Ganges; two sons, Joseph S. III of Philadelphia, and Michael of Silver Spring, Md.; a daughter, Marcene Broadwater, of Chevy Chase, Md.; a sister, Laura Holland of New Rochelle, N.Y.; and four grandchildren.
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