R. Clayton Mitchell, Jr.

Background

Mitchell was born in Chestertown on Maryland's Eastern Shore in 1936. He served in the United States Army before entering public service in the 1966 elections. In the 1966 elections, Mitchell won a seat on the Kent County Board of Commissioners. He was President of the Board of County Commissioners for 4 years. Four years later (1970), he won election to the Maryland House of Delegates representing District 36, which spreads across the northern Eastern Shore between the Delaware state line and the Chesapeake Bay. He became chair of the Eastern Shore delegation in 1974, and a decade later took over as chairman of the powerful Appropriations Committee. In 1987, after the election of the previous Speaker of the Maryland House of Delegates, Benjamin L. Cardin, to Congress, Mitchell was elected by his colleagues to serve as Speaker. He held the position until his retirement in 1994. and the Maryland Commission for Celebration 2000. In addition, he was a Director of the Second National Bank of Maryland and a member of the Board of Visitors and Governors of Washington College. In 2018, the Kent Narrows Bridge on US 50/US 301 was also dedicated in his name. In October, 2019, the Comptroller of Maryland established the R. Clayton Mitchell Award for Distinguished Public Service to recognize officials at all levels of government for exceptional public service.