Descendant of early settlers here next week

A public reception will be held next week for a descendant of one of the earlier settlers in Harrison County.
Dr. Arnold Mitchem of Chevy Chase, Md., a descendant of Dr. Littleton Mitchum and Isaiah Mitchum, will be at the Leora Brown School in Corydon on Thursday, Sept. 1, from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m.
Dr. Mitchem is the president of the Council for Opportunity in Education and has been a voice for low-income and disabled Americans, said Maxine Brown, also a descendant of the Mitchums and host of the reception.
A 1965 graduate of the University of Southern Colorado, Mitchem earned his Ph.D. in 1981 at Marquette University. Because of his work, the federally-funded TRIO Programs, the largest discretionary program in the U.S. Dept. of Education, have expanded by nearly 40 percent and serve more than 872,000 students at 1,200 colleges and universities.
Mitchem is a member of the executive committee of the European Access Network as well as a former trustee of the College Board and past president of the Committee for Education Funding, a Washington-based coalition of national education associations that include the American Council on Education and the Council of Chief State School Officers.
He is also a member of the National Advisory Committee, Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation, and sits on the board of the National College Access Network.
In 1987, Mitchem held the Martin Luther King Jr. ‘ Cesar Chavez ‘ Rosa Parks Professorship at Michigan State University and held the Ralph Metcalfe Chair at Marquette University in 1996.
Brown asks that persons planning to attend the reception RSVP by calling 738-3376 by Aug. 31.