Senator George J. Mitchell was born and raised in Waterville, Maine. He is a graduate of Waterville High School, Bowdoin College, and the Georgetown University Law Center. Mitchell served as United States attorney and US district court judge for Maine. In 1980, he was appointed to the United States Senate from Maine to complete the term of Senator Edmund S. Muskie, who resigned to become secretary of state. Mitchell was elected to a full term in the Senate in 1982 and reelected in 1988. He left the Senate in 1995 as Senate majority leader, a position he had held since January 1989.

Mitchell served as chairman of the peace negotiations in Northern Ireland. Under his leadership, the governments of Ireland and the United Kingdom and the political parties of Northern Ireland agreed to the historic Good Friday peace accord. At the request of President Bill Clinton, Mitchell served as chairman of an international fact-finding committee on violence in the Middle East. The committee’s recommendation, widely known as the Mitchell Report, was endorsed by the Bush administration, the European Union, and many other governments. In 2009, President Obama appointed Mitchell as special envoy for the Middle East.