Taking a Circuitous Path

June 29, 2010

Just after the Great Depression ravaged Oklahoma, a young sharecropper's son determined he needed to escape the Sooner State. So 14-year-old Bill Mitchell saved $3 and ran away. He spent a day walking from rural Chandler to Bethany, and then hitched rides to Phoenix, Ariz. He purchased a loaf of bread in the morning and divided it into thirds -- and that made his three meals for the day.

Arriving in Arizona, he got a job at a grocery store. But soon he determined it was time to go home. He saved up $3, and he hitched rides back to central Oklahoma. However, his journeys across the country and around the world were far from over.

Mitchell completed school and earned a bachelor's degree at Oklahoma City University. An avid reader, he read everything he could get his hands on. Meanwhile, the United States was embroiled in the Korean War. Mitchell knew if he was enrolled in a university full time and making progress toward a degree, he would not be drafted.

"I thought I needed to go somewhere that had an active culture and history," he recalled. So he and his wife, Dorothy, packed everything they had into their '46 Ford and went to Boston, not knowing the city or anyone there. Mitchell enrolled at Boston University to pursue his master's degree with the intention of paying while he studied and finishing his degree in one year "because I knew the draft was nipping at my heels," he said. He did fairly well in his coursework but could not finish the final exam in the allotted time.

"I did not pass the master's degree exam in 1953, so I went home with my tail between my legs," he said."I figured I had reached my full potential."

Mitchell was drafted into military service, and he served two years in Korea and Japan, taking a trunk-load of books with him to the Orient.

After completing his assignment, he returned to Oklahoma once again and taught for two years at U.S. Grant High School in Oklahoma City. He began teaching in 1955, and taught the first senior class at the school -- the entire senior class -- teaching three sections of senior English and two sections of sophomore English.

"I enjoyed teaching -- and it surprised me," he said. "I didn't want to be an English teacher. I knew a few, and they were dull."

Following his second year of teaching, he said he "starved out," earning an annual salary of only $2,700, with a wife, a child, and another child on the way. He returned to Boston to re-take his master's degree exam before his eligibility expired. His wife's sister moved into their home to help, during his absence, with his wife's pregnancy. The day before he took the exam, he received a telegram which read, "Your wife and son are doing fine." He had missed the baby's birth.

"This upset me, and I was very distracted," Mitchell said. "I took a long walk and came to a chapel. I sat down and talked to the Lord. I told Him if I passed the exam, I would use my degree to further His kingdom."

Mitchell passed the exam.

To provide for his family between teaching and re-taking the exam, he began selling books and encyclopedias. He said he was making good money for the first time in his life. He became a manager and trainer for the company, resulting in more income. He asked Boston University to send his transcript to the University of Oklahoma, which approached him about a job -- but the sales company said he needed to fulfill his commitment to them.

"I was very good, and I became hardened," he said. "I could sell to anyone. I learned how to lie without really lying."

He started selling vending machines for $80 each in 1958. He told people the company would stock the machines with hot nuts; his customers would provide the stock.

"I couldn't believe it -- everybody bought," he said.

He was making more money than ever. One day, whipping down a north Texas highway in a '47 Ford with 90 horsepower, he hit a jackrabbit which went right through his grill and pushed the fan into the radiator. While the car was repaired, he waited in a caf