MITCHELL, BYRD, SEKUL

Posted by Cathy Gowdy on Thursday, October 16, 2008 at 05:05:07 :

Independent Journal
Wednesday, November 7, 1979

PETER E. MITCHELL Sr.

Peter E. Mitchell Sr., former president of the state Public Utilities Commission and a longtime Marin resident, died Tuesday in a local convalescent home. He was 78.

Mitchell was born and reared in Sacramento and attended St. Mary’s College.

He ran a gas station business in Sacramento before moving to Ross in 1951, where he lived until moving to San Rafael five years ago.

He served on the Public Utilities Commission from 1951 to 1969, the only person to be appointed to the state regulatory body by three governors. He was first named to the commission by Gov. Earl Warren after serving on the California Employment Commission and its unemployment appeals board. Subsequently he was reappointed by Govs. Goodwin J. Knight and Edmund G. Brown Sr.

He twice served as president of the commission before retiring after 18 years on the board.

Mitchell also served as a city councilman in Sacramento for nine years in the 1930s.

He was president of the National Association of Railroad and Utility Commissioners in 1960-61 and was a representative on the Natural Gas Advisory Council to the Federal Power Commission.

He also was long active in the Knights of Columbus and was a past state deputy of the organization. For his work with the Knights, he was appointed by Pope Pius XII in 1953 as a knight commander of the Equestrian Order of St. Gregory the Great, one of the highest honors that can be bestowed on a layman by the Roman Catholic Church.

He was a member of St. Isabella’s Church in Terra Linda.

Surviving are his wife, Marie; a son, Peter E. Mitchell Jr. of Novato; a daughter, Mary Louise Byrd of San Rafael; a brother, the Rev. Brendan Mitchell of San Francisco; a sister, Virginia Sekul of Sacramento; and five grandchildren.

A Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated Saturday at 10:30 a.m. at the Cathedral of t he Blessed Sacrament in Sacramento. The rosary will be recited at 7:30 p.m. Friday at the W. F. Gormley Funeral Home in Sacramento. Burial will be in St. Mary’s Cemetery, Sacramento.