The Inter Lake kicks off its election coverage today with profiles of both Flathead County District 1 commissioner candidates. Next Sunday’s coverage will focus on how the commissioner candidates stand on local issues. Stories on state legislative candidates will be published throughout the coming weeks.

As the youngest of four children in a single-parent home, Phil Mitchell learned one simple lesson early in life: “If you want something you have to work for it.”

Hard work would define Mitchell’s life, starting with his high school years. At one point he was driving 100 miles every weekend and working 16-hour shifts loading planes to help pay for college.

Mitchell, 61, spent most of his grade-school years in Bismarck, N.D. His parents divorced when he was about 8, leaving his mother to raise him and his three older sisters.

“I didn’t have a father growing up,” he said. “We saw him once a year” and it wasn’t a good relationship.

After fifth grade, Mitchell’s mother moved the family to the San Diego area so she could pursue a master’s degree in school administration.

Mitchell credits much of his work ethic to his mother, but it was a difficult family life because his mother struggled with alcohol abuse.

“She did her best,” he said. “Mom had high expectations for us, and all four of us are pretty successful and productive.”

Beyond Mitchell’s realization that “if you want to get ahead you had to work,” another pivotal point in his life was when he became a Christian in junior high school. His faith remains paramount in his life.

During high school, Mitchell picked golf as his sport of choice. He lettered in golf all four years.

It was his maternal grandmother who introduced him to the sport when she let him tag along to the country club in Bismarck.

“I’m left-handed, but my grandmother wouldn’t let me play left-handed, so I’m a right-handed golfer,” he said.

During high school Mitchell had a couple of part-time jobs, working at a lumber yard and for a landscaping company, both of which would lay the foundation for his work later in life building golf courses and managing construction projects.

After earning an associate degree at Southwestern Junior College in 1974, he completed a Bachelor of Science degree in park administration and golf course management at California State Polytechnic University.

Because he had to pay his own way through college, he took time off periodically to earn money for tuition. It was during a very short stint at San Diego State University — he took one class there — that he met Belinda, his wife of 37 years. They married the summer before their senior year of college.

Mitchell gravitated to golf after completing his degree. He had been working at a golf course on weekends during his senior year of college, and after graduation he was assistant superintendent at Mesa Verde Country Club.

He even spent a summer as a park ranger in Glacier National Park, but quickly found out that wasn’t his calling.

Both he and Belinda had lined up jobs in Portland after college because her family lived there, but when they decided that just might be “too much family,” they headed to Whitefish and have lived there ever since. Mitchell’s neighbors in North Dakota had vacationed on Whitefish Lake, and he had accompanied them several times and was familiar with the Flathead Valley.

“We moved to Whitefish without jobs,” he said.

Mitchell worked for Western Building Center for a year and left when he didn’t have the financial means at the time to buy into the company.

He and his wife then operated several small businesses in the Flathead Valley, including a retail chocolate store and a furniture refinishing and antique business.

While Mitchell was president of the Whitefish Lake Golf Association, he oversaw a construction project at the Whitefish course done by American Golf Course Construction. The company was impressed with Mitchell and asked him to come to work, and he did.

Mitchell spent much of the next two decades as a project superintendent, first with American Golf and later with Transcontinental Golf, constructing well-known golf courses around the world, including the Iron Horse course on Big Mountain.

Mitchell and his wife worked hard to provide a cohesive family environment for their two sons.

“We were both from divorced families. We had to break the cycle,” he said.

“We had expectations, and we expected them [their sons] to go to college, but I didn’t drive what they pursued.”

Both of their sons are medical doctors, and Mitchell credits Summit Ministries, a Colorado-based Christian camp, with helping his sons chart a course for their lives.

“It was the best thing that happened to both my kids,” he said.

Mitchell owns and manages real estate in the Whitefish area, but he’s better known for his long history of community service. He served on the Whitefish School Board and Whitefish City Council and spent eight years as a volunteer manager at the Smith Sports Park in Whitefish, a job that included mowing the fields.

He has been involved with a couple of church remodeling projects, helped build the new North Valley Food Bank and was a founding donor for Cross Currents Christian School, now called Whitefish Christian Academy.

Mitchell has always set the bar high for himself, and he sees that continuing if he’s elected county commissioner. One thing is certain: He’s not afraid of hard work.

“It builds character and drive,” he said with a smile.

Features editor Lynnette Hintze may be reached at 758-4421 or by email at lhintze@dailyinterlake.com.