About Kent Mitchell

Kent Mitchell was Outdoor Editor for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution for 27 of his 35 years with the paper. In that time, he covered all kinds of outdoor sports, ranging from hunting and fishing to cliff climbing and triathlons and he participated in most as a means of getting as close to the subject as possible.

He's interviewed the rich, the famous and the everyday outdoor types, male and female, learned that the love of the outdoors, nature and adventure is a common denominator among all three types and became wealthy himself with the memories of those experiences.

An Atlanta native, he has been married to Shirley for 43 years, has three grown children and seven grandchildren. The most important part of his life is summed up in that sentence.

He is a United States Marine (Once a Marine, Always a Marine) and third degree karate black belt (Yes, you might see some martial arts articles in this section, too).
His writing career also includes a stint as Southeaster Field Editor for Field & Stream magazine in the 1980s, but his writing hasn't been limited to outdoors. He Co-Authored with Keith Vitali three books on karate--Beginning Karate, Intermediate Karate, Karate Kicking and has written articles for Karate Illustrated, Black Belt, Tai Chi Journal and Muscle Up as well as assisting the Southeast Tourism Society in publishing its Top 20 monthly events for several years.

Many times, his wife and children participated in events he would write about, such as one day when he, his wife, son and youngest daughter were all suspended from climbing ropes some 200 feet above the ground at Mount Yonah while he was working on a rock climbing article.

Personal experiences worked their way into many stories, such as:

• Watching his wife rescue their youngest daughter--saved her life--from a Tennessee River.
• On-the-road camping stories to parks in six states with the whole family and using their experiences to add more zest.
• Hunting and fishing with his son.
• Even a detailed article about hearing aids after he learned he wasn't getting the whole story during interviews.

Retired today, he's going to cover outdoors now for Atlanta.com so that the entire world will know what a wonderful place Atlanta is to live and have fun.

He covers a large area--hunting, fishing, RV camping, hiking/backpacking, climbing, running, canoeing/kayaking and more, even how a customer designer makes and sharpens his knives.