Dish-Houston

Over the weekend, Houston lost on of it's most supportive and humble givers. Cynthia Woods Mitchell was a well known patron of the arts, cared deeply about the environment and worked hard on historical preservation. She was 87 upon her death at her home in The Woodlands. Survivors include her husband, oilman-real estate developer George Mitchell, and 10 children.

Mitchell supported a wide range of charities from the Boy and Girl Scouts to Trinity Episcopal Church and Texas Children's Hospital.

“She was a force of nature,” the Mitchell family said in a prepared statement. “Our family will always remember the dynamic, colorful person that she was: intelligent, altruistic, totally original and hilariously funny. Her kindnesses are remembered by people she barely knew.”

She was a Depression-era child from New York City where she was raised by her single mother. This life perspective is, no doubt, where her heart for giving was sparked. Mitchell came to Houston with her twin sister, Pamela Loomis, in 1939 to study literature, art and psychology at the University of Houston. She met her future husband two years later while traveling by train from College Station to Houston. They were married on Halloween 1943.

In the mid-1970s, Mitchell launched plans for The Woodlands, an innovative planned community 30 miles north of Houston. Cynthia Mitchell picked the new development's name.

Together, Mitchell and her husband moved to breathe new life into economically bypassed Galveston, George Mitchell's hometown.

Beginning with the 1871 League Building in 1976, the Mitchells restored 17 iron-front buildings in the island city's historic downtown. Among their projects were conversion of the Leon and H. Blum Building into the luxurious, European-styled Tremont Hotel. On the beachfront, they bought and restored the Galvez hotel. On the Gulf and Galveston Bay, they built two new hotels, the San Luis and the Harbor House.

“Mrs. Mitchell brought style and sophistication to all the family's work to preserve historic Galveston,” said Dwayne Johnson, Galveston Historic Foundation executive director.

Mitchell's interest in history and historic preservation manifested itself on the national level in the 1990s when she became a board member of the National Trust for Historic Preservation. The group later presented her its highest honor, the Crowninshield Award.

Mitchell's interests and philanthropies extended to arts and sciences. Serving on the board of the World Wildlife Fund, she underwrote exhibits featuring endangered animals at the Houston Museum of Natural Science.

At the University of Houston, Mitchell underwrote a distinguished authors' program. She was a benefactor of the Houston Symphony, Houston Grand Opera and Houston Ballet. She was instrumental in creating UH's Cynthia Woods Mitchell Center for the Arts.

Mitchell was diagnosed with Alzheimer's Disease in 2002. It was a diagnosis she met with “optimism and dignity,” said family spokeswoman Dancie Ware.

In the wake of medical bad news, the Mitchell family poured resources into research to find a cure for the degenerative disease. Created were the George and Cynthia Mitchell Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases at the University of Texas Medical Branch-Galveston and the George P. and Cynthia Mitchell Center for Research on Alzheimer's Disease and Related Brain Disorders at the University of Texas Health Science Center in Houston. The family also supported research at Baylor College of Medicine.

“Cynthia Woods Mitchell filled the most demanding roles, from parent to civic entrepreneur, beautifully and with sparkling intellect,” said Dr. Larry Kaiser, UT Health Science Center president. “...She provided generously for the health of future generations by giving to medical research. She brought a sense of optimism as well as common sense and business acumen to the most daunting project and in all that she did, she defined womanly grace.”