The Mitchell Pate File

Mitchell Pate loves what he does.

Clearly.

If he didn’t, he wouldn’t have two, no three, no four . . . heck, I don’t know how many jobs.

For us, Mitchell is a reporter and photographer at our Freestone County Recorder- Chronicle. He’s also a fifth-grade math teacher at Fairfield Intermediate. He’s also a school bus driver. He owns his own business, Mitch’s Photography.

Back in my sportswriting days, we would’ve written about Mitchell doing everything in the game and selling popcorn at halftime.

The big question then is why?

“I love what I do,” the 37-year-old said. “I stay very busy but I would not change it for anything. I love what I do,” he repeated.

Love is a word you hear often with Mitchell.

He talks about marrying the love of his life, the love he has for the kiddos he teaches, love of the family atmosphere that comes with living in Fairfield (“everyone takes care of each other”) and the love he has for the newspaper business.

Mitchell started working on a newspaper in the seventh grade. “I wrote for the Buffalo Express the summer before eighth grade,” he said. That led to him basically running the entire paper before he graduated from Buffalo High School in 2007.

“I wrote, took photos, laid it out, posted to the website, did the weekly post office paperwork, made most of the ads (the owner sold the ads) . . . ”

Aha, I thought! What about the business office!

“Yeah, I did accounts payable and receivable to,” he smiled.

“I actually tried to buy the paper,” he explained. “In 2017-ish, but it didn’t work out.”

A couple of weeks later Mitchell found himself out of newspapers – and missing it. So he talked to the publisher in Teague and started working there parttime. That led to Fairfield and as one person or another left, Mitchell just took on more and more.

It’s just a love of newspapers.

“I love seeing the printed product,” he explained. “I love seeing the pictures, reading the articles. I love seeing what goes on in the community. I love when people tell me they saw something in the paper. I love it when someone cuts something out and puts it on the refrigerator. That means something.”

Just like Mitchell means something to all of us – and an awful lot of readers, students, bus riders . . .

Nice to connect again. I’ll be getting back to work now. We’ll talk again soon.

Timmons is a career newspaperman, award-winning author and industry consultant. He is the group publisher for Texas Local Media’s Central and Limestone newspaper groups which includes publications in Cameron, Marlin, Thorndale, Rosebud, Groesbeck, Mexia and Fairfield. You can reach him at tim@themexianews. com

Today is the third installment of a series of columns introducing our staff to you. This week we have photographer/reporter / teacher/bus driver Mitchell Pate.

• Mitchell Pate is a proud employee of the Freestone County Recorder Chronicle, where he has worked for the past six years. He writes articles and takes photos for the publication. He also assists in covering some events in Limestone County for The Mexia News and The Groesbeck Journal.

• Prior to working for the Freestone County Recorder Chronicle, he worked for The Buffalo Express newspaper for over 18 years. There, he wrote articles, took pictures, and laid out the entire newspaper in addition to doing accounts receivable and accounts payable, the website, and paperwork.

• Pate’s journalism career began in the seventh grade for his junior high newspaper at Buffalo Junior High.

• Mitchell graduated from Buffalo High School in 2007. He earned his Bachelor’s in Interdisciplinary Studies K-6th from Texas A&M University in 2011 and his Master’s in Educational Administration from Lamar University in 2014.

• Pate is currently in his 15th year as a teacher. He has been a fifth-grade math teacher at Fairfield Intermediate School for the past eight years. He was named the Fairfield Intermediate Teacher of the Year for 2020-21. He has also taught at Buffalo ISD, Texas City ISD, and Normangee ISD. In addition to teaching, Pate is also a school bus driver.

• Mitchell is married to the love of his life, Katy Curry, on Nov. 23, 2019. They will be celebrating their sixth anniversary next month. Katy teaches Kindergarten at Teague Elementary School. Their 3-year-old nephew Boone is their pride and joy. Mitchell and Katy love to travel and especially love the Christmas season.

• Mitchell also owns a small photography business, Mitch’s Photography. He does weddings, birthdays, family sessions and senior sessions.

• Mitchell and Katy are members of Round Prairie Baptist Church in Fairfield.