MOBILE, Ala. — Abraham Alvin “Abe” Mitchell, the Mobile real estate developer and philanthropist whose generosity reshaped the University of South Alabama, died Thursday, Oct. 15. He was 91.
The university announced his death Friday, calling him the most generous donor in its history. By USA’s count, Mitchell’s contributions to the school topped $130 million over the decades, money that built scholarships, academic programs and facilities and helped turn a young commuter campus into a regional university and health system.
“Abe was one of the most kind-hearted, generous people in the world,” said USA President Jo Bonner. “He lived a long, rich and rewarding life.”
Bonner credited Mitchell, his late brother Mayer and his sister-in-law Arlene with recognizing early what the university could become. “He, his brother, Mayer, and his sister-in-law, Arlene, saw long ago the potential of the University of South Alabama, and, together, they have helped transform USA into the campus and health system we are today,” Bonner said. “Our thoughts and prayers are with the entire family.”
A Mobile native with a builder’s eye
Mitchell was born in Mobile on Nov. 19, 1934, to Rebecca and Joseph Mitchell. As a boy he followed his older brother, Mayer, known to many as “Bubba,” to Riverside Military Academy in Georgia, enrolling in 1947. He graduated in 1952 as both battalion commander and valedictorian of his class.
From there he went on to the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, then earned a law degree from the University of Alabama and a Master of Laws in taxation from New York University School of Law. After returning home to Mobile, he practiced law for a short time before turning his attention fully to business.
In 1958, the Mitchell brothers and partner Bill Lubel founded The Mitchell Company. The firm grew quickly through the 1960s and 1970s and became one of the largest real estate developers in the Southeast, specializing in single-family homes, apartment communities and shopping centers. In his memoir, Mayer Mitchell wrote that the company built more than 25,000 houses, more than 20,000 apartments and 175 shopping centers in the decades that followed.
The brothers sold their interest in the company in the mid-1980s and went on to manage their investments through Mitchell Brothers Inc. Increasingly, their attention, along with that of Arlene Mitchell, turned to the University of South Alabama — a school neither brother had attended.
A family name across the campus
The Mitchell name now appears on some of the most recognizable places at South Alabama.
- Mitchell Center: The arena on the university’s main campus, which opened in 1998 and is home to Jaguar basketball, carries the family’s name. The Mitchells helped fund its construction, and the roughly 10,000-seat venue has since hosted Sun Belt Conference tournaments, concerts, theater productions and many other events.
- Mitchell College of Business: In 1999, Abe, Mayer and Arlene Mitchell endowed the business college, which was renamed in the family’s honor. A bronze statue of the two brothers, donated by the family and unveiled in 2008, greets students at the college’s entrance.
- USA Health Mitchell Cancer Institute: University trustees named the cancer institute for the family in 2006 after a $22 million gift to the school’s cancer research effort.
- Joseph and Rebecca Mitchell Learning Resource Center: Opened in the business college in 2007, it honors the brothers’ parents.
- Abraham A. Mitchell Field: The playing surface inside Hancock Whitney Stadium bears his name after the family pledged $5 million toward the stadium’s construction in 2019.
Mitchell also endowed faculty chairs in the university’s College of Medicine, including in radiology, cardiology and cancer research, and funded a challenge grant program for faculty chairs in the business college.
Mayer Mitchell died in 2007 after serving 36 years on USA’s board of trustees, including a term as chairman. Arlene Mitchell completed his term, continues to serve on the board and has also served as its chair. At the time of Mayer’s death, the family’s gifts to the university were reported to total $36.6 million — then the largest amount any family in the state had given to a public university.
Record gifts to mark milestones
The Mitchell family’s giving only grew from there, and Abe Mitchell often chose the university’s milestones to make his largest commitments.
In 2013, as South Alabama celebrated the 50th anniversary of its founding under President Frederick P. Whiddon, the university announced that Mitchell had committed $50 million. Half of the gift was directed toward undergraduate scholarship endowments and the other half to the Mitchell College of Business. At the time, it was the largest private gift ever made to a public university in Alabama.
Ten years later, at the university’s 60th anniversary celebration in 2023, he announced a $20 million gift toward a new performing arts center, describing it as “another way to connect the university with the community.”
He was also a fixture in the stands. Mitchell was an enthusiastic supporter of Jaguar athletics who seldom missed a chance to watch South Alabama football and basketball games in person.
Lessons from the district attorney’s office
Mitchell often explained that his devotion to education grew out of a brief stint in public office. In the mid-1990s, he served for a short time as interim Mobile County district attorney, and he said the experience left a lasting mark.
Speaking at the 2023 anniversary event, he recalled seeing up close how a young person’s schooling could shape the rest of his or her life. “When I was interim district attorney in Mobile, I saw firsthand how important an education is in shaping young people’s future and setting them on a path to success,” he said.
He said he had watched young people who left school end up in trouble with the law, and he drew a simple conclusion from it: that an educated person rarely comes in contact with the criminal justice system. That lesson, among many others, he said, inspired him to spend much of his life trying to make a positive difference for others.
The Mitchell Scholars
Of all his gifts, the one closest to Mitchell’s heart may have been the scholarship program that bears his name. Launched with his support in 1999, the Mitchell Scholars program became the largest privately funded scholarship program in the university’s history, providing full academic scholarships to business students. According to USA, more than 350 students have received support through the program.
Each fall, the university said, Mitchell looked forward to meeting the newest class of Mitchell Scholars studying business at South. He once described what those meetings meant to him.
“They’re all so young and bright,” he said. “When I meet them years later, or semesters later, that’s an exciting thing. And I’ve had professors tell me that when they have a Mitchell Scholar in the classroom, they can tell.”
His philanthropy reached beyond Mobile as well. He remained deeply involved with Riverside Military Academy, his alma mater, supporting its fundraising through challenge grants; the president’s residence on that campus, Mitchell Quarters, is named in his honor. The academy named him its Distinguished Alumnus in 2012. He also supported Camp Ramah Darom, a Jewish camp in north Georgia, and numerous nonprofit and cultural organizations.
Family and services
Mitchell was preceded in death by his parents, Rebecca and Joseph Mitchell; his son, Brent Joseph Mitchell; his brother, Mayer Mitchell; and his sister, Ann Mitchell.
He is survived by his partner of many years, Janie Rosner Allen; his sister, Fanny Mitchell Katz; his sister-in-law, Arlene Mitchell; and nieces and nephews Robert Weber, Jay Weber (Sheri), Riv Goldman (Alan), Richard Mitchell (Susan), Melinda Wertheim (Steven), Joy Grodnick (Jimmy) and Lisa Buckstein (Barry).
Also surviving him are Kenny J. Sylvester, his personal assistant for more than 44 years, and Sylvester’s wife, Gail, along with his longtime staff members Jim Spafford, Wynette Williams, Ginny Bloch and Phyllis Mixon.
Radney Funeral Home in Mobile is handling arrangements. Service details shared by the family include:
- Memorial visitation: 1 p.m. to 2 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 18
- Location: Ahavas Chesed Synagogue, Mobile
- Funeral: Services will also be held Sunday at the synagogue
In lieu of flowers, the family asks that donations be made to The Abraham A. Mitchell Student Access and Success Fund, University of South Alabama Office of Development and Alumni Relations, 650 Clinic Drive, TRP-III, Suite 1500, Mobile, AL 36688.
A lasting imprint
For generations of South Alabama students, the Mitchell name is simply part of the landscape — the arena where they cheer on the Jaguars, the business school where they take classes, the cancer institute where their families may seek care, the field where the football team plays on Saturdays.
Behind those names was a Mobile native who built thousands of homes across the South and then spent decades building something different at home: opportunity for young people who might not otherwise have had it. As the university noted Friday, his support helped transform South Alabama into the campus and health system it is today — and more than 350 Mitchell Scholars carry that legacy forward.
