Ned E. Mitchell

Class of 1986

Ned E. Mitchell worked for candymaker E.J. Brach & Sons for 40 years, the last 10 as president.

With a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from Northwestern University and a master’s in business from the University of Chicago, Mr. Mitchell joined Brach’s in 1948 as a night-shift engineer on the floor of the firm’s West Side plant, his son said.

Mr. Mitchell made his way up the ranks and was named president in 1977.

In 1980, he engineered an agreement with the City of Chicago to buy steam produced by a city incinerator to power Brach’s West Kinzie Street plant.

Mr. Mitchell stepped down as president in 1988, when Brach’s was sold to Jacobs Suchard, although he remained on the company’s board for several years.

Raised in Sauganash, Mr. Mitchell was a graduate of Von Steuben High School. He entered the Army and was on a ship headed toward the Philippines when Japan surrendered to end World War II.

In retirement, he helped his youngest son with a copying and printing store in the near north suburbs of Chicago, and watched with chagrin as Brach’s Kinzie Street plant was closed in 2003. His former office was in a building blown up in 2007 for the making of a Batman movie.

Mr. Mitchell was married to Artemis for 59 years, had three sons, Charles, Mark and Peter; and six grandchildren.

Mr. Mitchell, 83, died of complications from multiple myeloma January 21, 2009.