Steve Mitchell

1959 - 2016

Steve Mitchell

Steve Mitchell, an incredible husband, dad, son, brother, friend and colleague passed away February 29, 2016. Steve will be remembered as an honorable and skillful attorney who was an icon in the legal community, as a loyal friend who cared deeply for his relationships, as a moral leader admired by his peers, and most of all as a family man who was an amazing father and role model to his four children: Scott, Emily, Amy, and Jenny. And though he is no longer with us, he will continue to serve as a beacon of good moral and ethical values and will inspire us throughout our lives.

Steve was born on May 22, 1959 in Eureka, California to Janice and Clifford Mitchell. He graduated from Eureka High School in 1977, where he played number one singles on his tennis team and was valedictorian of his graduating class. Following in the footsteps of the prior two generations of his family, he entered Stanford University in the fall of that year. At Stanford, Steve made lifelong friends as a member of the Kappa Alpha Fraternity and was elected their Number One his senior year. It was in his senior year while working at the Stanford Daily Newspaper, that he met his true love and best friend Terri Dobbels, who would later become his wife.

Upon graduation, they moved to San Francisco where Steve worked at the Arthur Anderson Consulting Company. Steve later attended law school at UCLA, graduating in 1986. During this time Steve externed for California Supreme Court Justice Malcolm Lucas and interned for Allen, Matkins, Leck Gamble & Mallory in Los Angeles. Steve and Terri married on September 27, 1986 at Stanford's Memorial Church and enjoyed 30 wonderful years as husband and wife. Steve began his legal career at Sheppard, Mullin, Richter & Hampton in San Francisco where he remained for two years. Steve and Terri moved to Santa Rosa to raise a family, and Steve began his practice at Geary, Shea, O'Donnell and Grattan in 1989. Steve was known in the profession for always representing his clients with dignity, class and honor. He loved and respected the law and the legal process. For this, he was nominated to the prestigious American Board of Trial Advocates (ABOTA) in 2011, and was selected as a Northern California Super Lawyer in business litigation for the past three years. Ever the advocate of the legal profession, he was a member of the Sonoma County Bar Association and served as its president in 2009. He was an active member and also a former committee member of the Association of Defense Trial Attorneys. He was a member and former member of the board of directors of the Association of Defense Counsel of Northern California and Nevada. Steve was more than just a resume, and felt deeply that those in the profession should treat each other, the courts and their clients with equal amounts of honor despite differences of legal opinions.

Outside the courtroom, Steve loved the outdoors and the bonds he formed with family and friends while "unplugged". This began at the Mad Mile Ranch cabin that his family built along a private riverfront just outside Kneeland in Humboldt County. Growing up he enjoyed summers there along with his parents and siblings Cliff, William, and Shelley. Later he made many memories at the cabin with four generations of Mitchells: including his wife, children, cousins, and nephews.

It was also at the cabin where Steve developed his love of fly fishing, a passion shared by several generations of Mitchells. While not a religious man, Steve's personal heaven was on the bank of a river, fly fishing rod in hand and cigar in his mouth. His search for the most elusive fish took him around the world, most recently to Bolivia. He passed on this passion to his son Scott with whom he enjoyed many fishing expeditions along with a myriad of other friends.

When he wasn't fly fishing, he spent countless hours nurturing his garden. The home he and Terri made overlooking Bennett Peak has a yard that is always in bloom and a dinner table full of fresh, homegrown vegetables from April until October. Steve was a USTA rated 5.0 competitive tennis player who cherished both the athletic competition and the bonds he formed with his teammates and friends in Napa and Sonoma County. He held season tickets to the San Francisco Giants, where his daughter Amy was almost born. He had taken the family to a Giants game and Terri went into labor on the way home from the park. He was a music lover, particularly of the Grateful Dead and the blues, but danced enthusiastically to everything -- including a Lady Gaga concert with his daughter Jenny. During football season he never missed an opportunity to tailgate outside the Stanford Stadium, an experience he shared with his daughter Emily who graduated there in 2013, keeping up the family tradition.

Steve was humble and at heart a simple man - a true family man who loved his family unconditionally. He was immensely proud of his four children and found great joy vacationing with them and Terri, most recently to Costa Rica where the six of them rang in 2016 together. Steve lived in accordance with a poem hanging in his home's kitchen that reads: "This was among my prayers: A portion of land, not so big, a garden and near the house a spring of never-failing water and little wood beyond. The Gods have done more and better. It is well. I ask no more." He is preceded in death by his father, Cliff. He is survived by his mother, Janice Mitchell and his siblings Cliff, Shelley and William Mitchell and William's wife Oxana, all of Arcata, CA. He has numerous cousins, aunts and uncles in Reno and Marin. He is also survived by his wife Terri and their four children Scott, Emily, Amy and Jenny Mitchell.