Obituary of Jesse Mikell

Mikell, Jesse 8/12/37 - 6/22/12 Jesse Mikell passed away on the morning of June 22 after a brief illness. Jesse, 74, is survived by his wife of 47 years, Dorothy Mikell; his children, Jesse, Jeffrey (Tara), and Yolanda; and his grandchildren, Nicholas, Mariah, and Mikayla; his brother and sisters, Charles D. Mikell, Melissa M. Johnson, and Delores M. Fox; several nieces and nephews, cousins, and in-laws. He is predeceased by his mother and father, Eugene and Sadie Mikell; his brothers and sisters, Wilhelmina Hoyt, Margaret Barbour, Herman Mikell, Frank Mikell, and Kenneth Mikell. Jesse was born on August 12, 1937 in Pittsburgh, PA. He was the eighth of nine children born to Eugene and Sadie Mikell. A tremendous scholar athlete, Jesse excelled in football and track at McKeesport (PA) High School before moving to study at Wichita University. After college, he spent a period of time in the US Army, then he moved to Washington, DC where he met his future wife, Dorothy. In 1968, the family relocated from Washington, DC to Endwell, NY and eventually Owego, NY. Jesse began working for IBM Owego in 1968. He worked for them for 25 years. He then spent an additional 16 years working for Lockheed Martin Owego before retiring in 2009. He held a PhD in Management and Finance, an MBA in Management and Finance (Univ of Scranton), a BS in Political Science and Social Sciences (Binghamton Univ), and BA in Business Administration and Economics (Wichita Univ). He was the Treasurer of the Broome County Urban League Board of Directors, a member of the Elks, American Legion, NAACP, and the Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, Incorporated. Jesse will be most remembered for his coaching and mentoring. He coached Little League Baseball, Junior League Football, American Legion Baseball and was widely known throughout the Triple Cities area as a Track and Field mentor to several athletes. Many of the runners that he mentored set numerous records at various high schools throughout the area. What Jesse really took pride in was not only the on-field successes of the athletes he mentored or coached; it was more in the off-field successes they had experienced later in life. Many of the athletes mentored or coached by Jesse went on to be doctors, engineers, teachers, financial analysts and one even piloted the Space Shuttle on its final mission. Friends and family will remember him for his smile, his laugh, his positive outlook on life, his fun-loving nature, and his storytelling. Services for Jesse Mikell will be held on Friday, June 29, Time and Location TBD. A public viewing will be held Thursday, June 28, at Coleman & Daniels Funeral Home, 300 Main Street, Endicott, from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m.