Longtime Houston oilman and real estate developer George Mitchell and his wife Cynthia have donated $2.5 million to the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston to fund the creation of the George P. and Cynthia Woods Mitchell Center for Alzheimer’s Disease Research, which will coordinate UTMB’s expanded research into Alzheimer’s disease. Mrs. Mitchell has suffered from Alzheimer’s over the past several years.
The new UTMB center will focus on Alzheimer’s but also will conduct research on similar degenerative neurological disorders such as Parkinson’s disease. The Mitchell donation will be combined with other donations and grants to intensify UTMB’s overall neurological research.
Although Mr. Mitchell has long been a major player in Houston independent oil and gas circles, he is best known as the developer and visionary of The Woodlands, the planned suburban community 30 miles north of downtown Houston that Mr. Mitchell started 30 years ago and which now is home to almost 100,000 residents.