I left this as a comment to the forum following the Seattle Post-Intelligencer's online obituary for Bill:
For many of us who went through Bastyr University's naturopathic medical training program (and there are more than 1000 of us now), Dr. Bill Mitchell was an extraordinary combination of hero/icon and brother/uncle/friend.
He was Dr. Bastyr's lineage holder. Like Dr. Bastyr, Bill was unfailingly kind, humble, generous with his time and skills and knowledge. Like Dr. Bastyr, he was brilliant, deeply rooted in the traditional wisdom and history of our medicine, yet always learning and studying and incorporating new discoveries.
Unlike dear Dr. Bastyr, Bill was also a dazzling and inspiring lecturer and public speaker. He spoke tirelessly to many kinds of audiences on behalf of Bastyr University and naturopathic medicine, and was always willing to give his time and energy to benefit the students. In class we were awed by his vast and penetrating understanding of the biochemical structures and mechanisms of humans, plants and nutrients, watching in amazement as he rapidly sketched molecular formulae and relationships on the board. Even more amazing, though, is that he was able to (relatively painlessly) transfer the basics of all of that knowledge to all of us. And at the same time, he was fluent in many other fields: the history and anthropology of healing and medicine, classical philosophy and spiritual literature, cosmology, the mysteries of the human psyche, and much more.
Perhaps most markedly, Bill inspired and deepened all of us who came into orbit around him with his radiant connection to the ordinary holiness of this world, his trust in and deep love affair with nature, his relationship with the spirit of life and with some inexhaustible source of big true love. So many of us, students and patients and colleagues, felt that we were special to him, that he saw something in us that was amazing and powerful and good, even when we didn't see it ourselves. His strong presence, his kind gaze, and his big laugh simultaneously rooted us and lifted us up. And through all the suffering of the last few years, he didn't hide from us. He allowed us in, to keep him company, and to offer our bits of support in the face of devastating remorse and grief -- and to feel that you are able to give a little something to someone who has given you very much is in turn a great gift.
Bill was our hero, and our sweet heart. He lives on now in all of us who adored him. May his memory be always a blessing and joy.
love and condolences to his whole family,
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