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Posted on 10/06/2002 11:13:00 PM PDT by Lokibob
Monday, September 30, 2002
Local grad earns award Chinese honor Hall-Dale alumnus
By JUSTIN ELLIS, Staff Writer
Copyright © 2002 Blethen Maine Newspapers Inc.
When Ernest Mitchell graduated from Hall-Dale High School in 1971 he could not have possibly imagined where a career as a concrete construction specialist would take him.
Especially since he originally aspired to be an architect and later would earn a degree in architectural engineering degree from Wentworth Institute in Boston.
Mitchell's schooling and career took him to China, and today he is scheduled to receive a "Friendship Award" from the State Administration of Foreign Experts Affairs of China in Beijing for his work on the Three Gorges Hydroelectric Project.
The award was established by the central government in 1991 to recognize the contributions of foreign experts to China's scientific, economic, educational and social development.
For almost three years Mitchell worked on the Three Gorges Hydroelectric Project in Yichang, in China's Hubei province. The purpose of the dam is power generation, waterway navigation and flood control along the Yangtze River.
"Every project you work on, you can look back and say, 'I worked on that,' " Mitchell said by telephone from a project he is working on in northwestern Washington state. "But this will be one of the engineering marvels of the world."
The Farmingdale native was hired by Montgomery Watson & Harza Engineering Co., a private firm that deals with design, construction, procurement and program management for engineering projects across the globe.
When completed, the $25 billion project will generate 18.2 kilowatts of power for the province and the 1.13 million villagers who are being resettled in the area.
"It's a surprise for me. I think these type of awards are given to individuals, but it takes a team on things like this," Mitchell said. "It took the support of my Chinese colleagues every day."
Aside from his work at the dam, Mitchell spent several weekends teaching conversational English to Chinese schoolchildren. He said that was very rewarding. He also was able to absorb enough Chinese to hail a taxi or order a meal.
Mitchell's "gypsy lifestyle," as he puts it, runs in his blood. His father was a master sergeant in the Army, so Mitchell and his five siblings lived as far away from the United States as Taiwan and Germany while growing up.
His oldest daughter lives in Homer, Alaska, and his youngest daughter is in Ellsworth.
"This really is second to finding someone who will support this kind of lifestyle, my wife of 30 years," Mitchell said. "If I didn't have the support of my family, I wouldn't have done it."
No matter what part of the world he is working in, Mitchell said he finds a way to talk with his wife Candy at least one hour each day.
Candy and Mitchell's brother, Bill, and his wife will be at the ceremony in Beijing. They also were scheduled to attend a state banquet celebrating the 53rd anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China.
When he left Yichang in July, the project was two-thirds complete and the crews were preparing for river closure, the next phase of the project, Mitchell said.
Mitchell is preparing to move on to his next project which takes him to northern Ethiopia, where it's going to take a satellite phone to stay in touch with the family. The project calls for him to be there for more than four years.
"This is a thrill," he said. "I'm working with great people and having so much fun. I don't know why I would retire. I'm very, very fortunate."
yitbos, BBM
but I thought China was different somehow...
maybe it was the inscrutability or something but no...
a bad government kills all who refuse it...
much like the clintoons!!
Sorry!
Big Guy, commies don't change.
Limbaugh claims there is a difference between socialists and commies.
Commies will slit your throat. Socialists will tax you to death.
I don't buy it.
yitbos, BBM
Commies don't help anyone in the end.
yitbos, BBM
I think China is alot like Italy in many ways...
they are both in a "strategic" place and they are both peopled by a population that is more anxious to survive than fight!!
They have also been conquered more than any other country, but they survive!!
An American will spit in your eye if you demand he "relinquish his rights!"
An Italian or Chinaman will say "OK!"
Not to mock China or Italy, but no country can ever know the rights of America...
that is why immigrants that can name the 13th President and we can't and nobody gives a fuck...
because they don't know what to do with the knowledge!!!!
Now we both know!!
yitbos, BBM
That's a bit racist, don'tcha think?
I am not automatically condemning anyone and everyone connected to third world developement...
but what do you think Ethiopia is going to do with cheap and abundant electricity???
They will apply it to the testicles of anyone who goes against them!!
Regards,
Any up on the net? I'd love to see them.
This is a fascinating project. With about as much downside as upside. It will be interesting to see how it plays out.
It's difficult to get good info on the dam. The Discovery Channel (History Channel?)had an "engineering marvel" show about the project, and it was uncharacteristically bad. Most of the time was spent discussing the relocation and not the dam.
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