Glenn Mitchell

The local talk show host Glenn Mitchell passed away in his sleep yesterday morning. He was one of my favorite interviewers and my day will be emptier without him.

He had great guests and commanded a breadth and depth of knowledge that enabled him to have a discussion with his guests rather than be a hapless wanderer only gleaning the surface of a topic. He did this with great humility and was always eager to learn something new. I think this anecdote from wikipedia captures these qualities best:

Shortly before his death he was praised by interviewee CBS veteran reporter Mike Wallace as being widely known for being an extraordinary interviewer. Mitchell responded, modestly as was his wont, calling himself “the man who did his homework.”

I bought a portable FM tuner just so I could listen to his show in my cube. Dallas really lost a great citizen. His show was set to go national on XM this February and I would have loved for the rest of the country to be able to listen to him.