CITRUS HEIGHTS, CA (MPG) - Ted Mitchell, 95, believed to be one of Citrus Heights’ longest living residents, returned to Rusch Park to see the city’s recently refurbished World War II Memorial, his first, he said, in many years.

The polished bronze plaque commemorates the names of 272 of men and women from the community of Citrus Heights in uniform during the war years of World War II. Mitchell’s name is engraved in alphabetical order the third column of the plaque nearly in the center of it.

Above his name are Knute, Lester, Victor and Willis Larson. Members of the Van Maren family, Adolph, Doyle, Jack and James are listed in the column to his right.

Mitchell was joined by Larry Fritz, a fellow San Juan High School graduate and president of the Citrus Heights Historical Society during the interview.

“It’s so good to see the condition of the plaque now,” Mitchell said. “It looks great.”

Mitchell started San Juan High School in 1940 and took additional high school classes in agriculture so that he could graduate early in the middle of the 1943-44 school year. He was 17 when in 1943 he left the family ranch and went with his father to San Francisco to enlist. He is officially considered a member of San Juan’s graduating class of 1944.

Mitchell’s great-grandfather purchased 160 acres of land in 1866 around Arcade Creek for $1,600 in gold coins. The property, located north of Greenback Lane and east of Sunrise Boulevard, was so thickly wooded with large oak trees that before the family could grow any crops, they had to clear the trees by hand. His family grew zinfandel wine grapes on 80 acres from around 1920 until the mid-1950s, and then returned to grain farming.

“I still recognize a lot of the names on this plaque,” he said. “The younger generation doesn’t remember much about World War II and our wartime service. You have to remember that it was a different time then.”

Mitchell was accepted into the Navy’s V-5 program to become an aviation cadet. He received a commission as a Navy officer and completed his service in the Naval Reserve as a lieutenant. Mitchell shared a black and white photograph of himself in his dress naval uniform.

Upon completion of wartime technical training in Nebraska, Mitchell attended the University of Colorado in Boulder, before being assigned to duty at the Navy Department in Washington, D.C. where he worked in the development of radar operations and systems. He recalled that he didn’t see overseas duty during the war.

After World War II, Mitchell returned home to his family ranch in what later became Citrus Heights and earned a Bachelor of Science degree in electrical engineering.

In a 2019 interview published by the Citrus Heights History and Arts Commission on YouTube, Mitchell described early life in Citrus Heights and his family history.

Much of today’s Citrus Heights area remained undeveloped until the early 1950s, Mitchell remembers. Once development began, he says it didn’t take long for it to advance, with the area around his family ranch officially becoming a city in 1997.

Today, The Mitchell family name is tied to many properties in Citrus Heights, including the original land the Citrus Town Center now rests on.

A new housing development off Arcadia Drive, between Sunrise and Fair Oaks Boulevard, named Heritage at Mitchell Village, which is being built by KB Homes, also honors his family.

Concluding with reflections on the fight for cityhood, Mitchell recalls in the video, there was talk of incorporating Citrus Heights as its own city as early as the 1920s. “When they finally got enough support to incorporate as a city, they had a real battle with the county,” he said. “Sacramento County didn’t want to lose the territory.”

When the dispute with the county was finally won, Mitchell’s family helped finance the city’s incorporation effort.

Mitchell’s interview and more than a dozen other videos published by the History and Arts Commission are part of the commission’s “Oral History Project.”