Mitchell, John Joseph, 1945-

Biography

John James Mitchell, Jr. was born in Chicago on April 28, 1897 to a prominent banker and his wife. He was raised in the Chicago area and attended Yale University. After serving as an aviator in the U.S. Naval Reserve Force during World War I, he took a position at the Illinois Merchant Trust and Savings Bank, where his father was president. In 1925, Mitchell joined an elite group of young investors, all of whom were pilots during the war, in forming National Air Transport, a small company with ten cargo-carrying airplanes that would eventually evolve into United Airlines. In 1937, Mitchell joined the United Airlines board of directors, where he would remain for 42 years.

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