Familiar Face: Jim Mitchell

On any given Wednesday, if you have wandered into the Inkberry Books in Niwot you most likely have seen the familiar face of Jim Mitchell. Upon entering, you would be greeted with a cheery "Hello," and the opportunity for a hearty chat whether on the question of the most recently delivered book you should read, or what Groucho Marx might have to say on a multitude of subjects.

Mitchell's New York City origins are not immediately evident. Indeed the rather circuitous route he has taken to be a published author and weekly purveyor of books in Niwot has provided him with a wealth of stories that he is always happy to share.

According to Mitchell, he has made a career of being both a second choice and also being in the right place at the right time with friends who provided opportunities for success he might not otherwise have achieved.

Early on, Mitchell worked in Baltimore for the ski division of Head, a sports equipment and clothing company. He then was transferred to Boulder with Head, moving from being a sales manager to ultimately working in advertising. During this time he became interested in back country outfitting which was driven, he says, from an early age interest in horses and in being a cowboy. But he came to understand that outfitting by itself would not put enough food on the table.

After leaving his advertising job at Head, he spent a year away from company work. A friend who also had left Head was starting a new company and asked Mitchell for help advertising its launch. Mitchell complied. When his friend returned in a few months with another request, Mitchell realized he should start charging for his service. Another former Head employee came with similar requests and Mitchell's advertising company was born. This flourished for twenty-three more years.

When he retired at age 54, Mitchell decided to give something back for the greater good and started an NGO in Afghanistan that craftily offered free schooling for boys if girls were also allowed to attend.

When that effort ran its course, Mitchell spent several years in what looked like a traditional retirement - being a father and continuing his interest in horses. With his wife and children, he sometimes drove a wagon behind a team of horses along the Oregon Trail. He has great memories of the Rev Taylor's restaurant pre-dating the 1914 House, with tie-ups for horses that allowed him and his family to ride the wagon into town for dinner. He also enjoyed taking his daughter to the tea house upstairs for afternoon teas.

A friend suggested that Mitchell would make a great Director of Admissions at the Dawson School. And he did. His plan was to stay two years but he enjoyed it so much he stayed for nine years.

After working at the Dawson School, Mitchell retired a second time with an idea for a book. He had always written during his advertising career, and would say that advertising is mostly telling micro stories about products that make them appealing to the public.

Mitchell decided he wanted to write about learning to play different musical instruments. And he did. He ultimately learned to play 10 instruments as the basis for the telling of his book, "Musical Chairs."

He received help and encouragement from Gene Hayworth who was the librarian at the Norlin Library at the University of Colorado, Boulder, and who also was opening Inkberry Books in Niwot. Hayworth's partner, Keith Waters, happened to be a music professor at CU and was a great help in guiding Mitchell to teachers who gave him the tutoring he needed to learn to play.

The book took three and a half years to complete and was published at the end of 2022.

Meanwhile, Hayworth retired as a librarian and was working seven days a week at Inkberry Books. Mitchell volunteered to take over for him at the bookstore on Wednesdays as he was already coming for breakfast at the Garden Gate Cafe to practice speaking French with others.

Mitchell attributes his diverse successes to his thinking that, "If you want to do something enough, and you approach it without fear, with reasonable expectations for the outcome, you can do anything."